Naruto: Sage of the Broken Path
by Shaydewalker
Summary: A pebble dropped in a pond creates ripples. One day, Naruto happens to overhear a casual comment, and everything changes as the ripples spread. Naru/Hina may also become Naru/Femhaku.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note!

Alright! This is my first chapter of my first ever Naruto fanfic. I've lurked around this site for a while, but I finally got around to making a profile so I can post this story!

Alright, WARNING! Sasuke annoys me, ergo expect the poo gods to dump on the arrogant bastard every now and again. I'll try to keep it under control though. In my opinion, excessive bashing is almost as annoying as emo kids and lol cats. For my opinion of Sakura and pre time skip Kakashi . . . well, reread the previous sentence and replace 'excessive bashing' with 'Sakura and Kakashi.' I must also admit that stupid people annoy me, as such Naruto in this fic will be ignorant but not stupid. The difference is subtle, but important.

Summary!

A pebble dropped in a pond creates ripples. One day Naruto happens to overhear a casual comment about Kiri's famous Seven Swordsmen and immediately decides that swords must be almost as cool as learning new jutsu.

Disclaimer!

I'm a Starving College Student, One Each. If you think I own Naruto, I have a bridge in New Mexico I'd like to sell you.

Naruto: Sage of the Broken Path

It was the day after Naruto's tenth birthday, and Naruto was feeling dejected. Most people, however, wouldn't have noticed. Between a loud voice and fox-like smiles it was amazing what people could miss. Still, for those that had actually bothered to get to know the short blonde, the difference was obvious.

Ayame watched the last of the lunch crowd leave before she met her surrogate little brother's eyes as he finished his seventh bowl of ramen. "Want to talk about it?" she asked softly, her left eyebrow lifting towards her hairline inquisitively and a gentle smile gracing her features.

Naruto hid a wince before giving a wide smile and reaching up to scratch the back of his head in embarrassment. "Oh, it's nothing Ayame-chan," he said with the fake smile still on his face, "I just had to spend all morning cleaning up my apartment."

Ayame immediately felt her lips begin to turn into a frown before she clamped down on the expression. Naruto might not be the neatest person ever born, but she highly doubted that he'd ever need half a day to make his small home presentable. _Which means, _she thought viciously, _that the villagers decided to vandalize the place last night. _She bit back a sigh as the blonde dug into his eighth bowl of ramen. Life truly wasn't fair. _An accident of birth, and he's doomed to be the village's whipping boy for life. _If the poor kid had been born even a day later . . .

Ayame shook herself mentally as Naruto began to reach for his wallet to pay for his meal. "Not today, Naruto-kun," she said as he began to pull ryo notes from his 'gama-chan.' The undersized blond looked up at her, startled. It made her want to cry as she looked into his eyes and saw the fear in them. The poor kid was honestly expecting to be kicked out or assaulted! _Days like this make me wish I was more like mom than dad. _Her mother had been a chunin specializing in fuinjutsu before her death, and sometimes Ayame wished she'd had the chakra reserves to be admitted into Konoha's academy. _It would be worth the trouble off being a ninja just to be able to beat the occasional idiot into intensive care at the hospital_. "Did you really think I'd let you pay for your meal today? It's on the house; happy belated birthday, Naruto-kun."

The honest smile that slid across his features was well worth the cost of his meal in her humble opinion.

"Thanks, Ayame-chan!" Naruto said as he slipped off the stool and out through the curtain. Ayame managed to hide the tears in her eyes until after he left.

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For a moment Naruto struggled to keep from crying as he slipped out of the curtain and away from Ichiraku's Ramen. _For a second I really thought . . . _For just a second as he'd tried to pay for his meal he'd seen one of the villagers glaring down at him instead of Ayame. Quickly wiping the corners of his eyes he made his decision, _I won't let them make me feel sad! I'll become Hokage and show them all! _

His decision once more made, Naruto headed for his favorite and usually uninhabited training ground. Tripping and almost running into a well dressed woman that scowled at him before her nose shot into the air as she sneered at him. Naruto stuck his tongue out at her back before continuing on his self-appointed mission, entirely unaware that in almost every parallel dimension he hadn't been able to catch himself in time. In those dimensions, he spent the rest of the day running from the mob of villagers out for his blood. In this one . . .

Naruto ran as fast as he could through the village and out towards one of Konoha's most isolated training grounds expecting to have the place to himself when he arrived. While he was still a minute away he could tell that that particular hope was in vain. There was at least one other ninja training in his favorite spot. The explosions were a good clue.

For a moment, he was tempted to be annoyed. The pout had even started to form on his face before a thought struck him. _Wait a minute, if there's a ninja training there . . . I might be able to learn a new jutsu from watching him! _A smile immediately spread across his face as he considered being able to toss around massive fireballs or lightning bolts. _Then Sakura-chan will definitely see that I'm better than Sasuke-teme!_

Naruto stepped into the woods and hurried towards the clearing just ahead, utilizing every bit of stealth skill he'd gained from outrunning ANBU squads after his pranks to remain hidden. However, upon reaching his training ground he was disappointed.

A ninja wearing a chunin vest was picking himself up off the ground, the fight clearly over, "Damn, Shin, you've gotten a lot better in the last month," he said as he slid a short, straight-bladed sword into a sheathe on his back, "I thought I had you with that Shunshin combo, but you weren't fooled at all, were you?"

The black haired ninja across from him smiled briefly, "I've been training too, you know!" he said with exaggerated indignation, "as if I'd let someone like you beat me! You're not exactly one of the Seven Swordsmen, you know, Kaien," the apparent ninjutsu specialist teased.

The newly identified Kaien laughed, "I wish! One of the Seven Swordsmen could go through a team of Jounin like a kunai through butter!"

"No doubt," Shin agreed with a smile. "C'mon! I'm thirsty! Lets hit the bar already," he laughed, "and this month, you get to pay!"

Naruto, still hidden in the bushes at the edge of the clearing was frozen in thought. He'd never really thought about learning how to use a sword before. _I always thought that ninjutsu was better. _After all, fireballs were awesome! How could the bad guys fail to cower in fear of him if he could do something so totally cool? But the Chunin's words continued to bounce around in his thoughts, _One of the Seven Swordsmen could go through a team of Jounin like a kunai through butter! _Naruto shook his head to clear his thoughts and smiled. "Alright! I've decided! I'll learn how to use a sword until I can beat all of the Seven Swordsmen at once!" he yelled out, "Then the villagers will have to make me Hokage! Believe it!" The wide grin stretched across his face for another moment as he envisioned seven men with swords begging him for mercy before a though occurred to him. "But I can't afford a sword with what the shops in town charge me for supplies!" he yelled again, his attitude doing a sudden 180. "Oh, man!"

Naruto turned away from the training field, disappointed and no longer in the mood to work out. "It was such a good idea too," he complained aloud. Kicking a stone in the path, Naruto started walking slowly back towards the village. Wandering aimlessly with a disappointed frown on his face, Naruto finally looked up to find that he'd made his way to the Hokage's tower. Suddenly, he brightened. _Maybe the old man can help!_

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The Third Hokage glared at his most irritating foe before massaging his wrist and picking up another sheet of paperwork with a grimace. _If I have to deal with one more idiotic civilian trying to sneak a marriage contract for the Uchiha past me with a Genjutsu-_

The door to his office crashing open interrupted his caravan of thought before he could build any real momentum. "Hey, old man!" a familiar blond yelled in greeting and the Hokage felt a smile form in response.

"Hello, Naruto, how can I help you today?" he asked, taking the excuse to set his paperwork aside for a while.

That question started a metaphorical deluge from Naruto. He related his decision to pursue Kenjutsu and then his subsequent realization that he couldn't afford a weapon with which to practice. By the end, Sarutobi was having a hard time keeping the smile off of his face. The entire series of events was somehow very uniquely Naruto. Finally, the young blond finished by asking, "What should I do, old man?"

For a moment, the Third Hokage stopped to think. Konoha wasn't well known for experts in Kenjutsu, but there were a few that might be interested in taking on an apprentice. The only problem was the boy's age and reputation. The elderly Hokage was trying to come up with a plan to convince one of them to teach the boy when he was struck by a sudden thought.

Quickly, Sarutobi got up from behind his desk and moved towards one of the many hidden compartments in his office. A quick set of hand seals deactivated the security seals and the compartment came open. "I'd almost forgotten about these things," he admitted aloud as Naruto followed along behind him, craning his neck to see what was in the secret compartment. "Before Uzugakure was destroyed, the Uzumaki clan was able to send some of their possessions and a part of the clan's library away to keep them safe in case the worst happened," Naruto's eyes shot open in what appeared to be surprise. This caused the third some confusion. "What's wrong Naruto? You seem surprised."

Naruto shot him a look, "Of course I'm surprised! I have a clan? And we even had a village named after us! Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded, looking hurt.

Sarutobi, in turn, blinked in sudden surprise. "You should have heard all about them in your history classes in the academy. I-" the Third Hokage cut off suddenly and seemed almost to fold in on himself. "Of course. It seems that I'll have to have a . . . discussion with some of the teachers at the academy," after all, if they weren't teaching one thing accurately just to spite Naruto, how many other things were being taught poorly or not at all? Did it never occur to the fools that they were stabbing an entire class in the foot just to spite one boy? "It seems I will have to fill in the blanks your Academy instructors have left in your education. Yes, there was a village named after your clan. Uzugakure was led by the Uzumaki clan since its founding. Your clan specialized in Fuinjutsu. Though because of their proximity to Kirigakure they were well above average in Kenjutsu as well. They were also known for their bloodline which-"

"You mean I have a bloodline too!" Naruto interrupted, jumping to his feet before a quelling glare from the Hokage made him cover his mouth and sit back down.

"Indeed you do. The Uzumaki clan possessed greater than normal chakra reserves and an unusually dense life force," the Hokage explained. seeing Naruto's expression of confusion he elaborated, "This means that you will probably live to be even older than I am now."

"But you're ancient, old man! You're saying I could be even older than you?"

Feeling somewhat insulted, Sarutobi nonetheless smiled in amusement. "Just so, Naruto," he said, then shook his head in irritation at the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Academy instructors. "I took your lack of comment about your clan and bloodline as disinterest. I suppose I should have known better," he said as he once again began sifting through the rather disorganized compartment. "All of this will be yours anyway when you reach sixteen years of age or become a Chounin, but I suppose I can release some of this to you earlier than that," he said with a smile as he finally found what he was looking for.

Sarutobi smiled as Naruto's eyes shot open wide at what he pulled out of the wall. "That's for me?" Naruto squeaked looking at the beautiful sword in the Hokage's hand. He reached for it, but Sarutobi lifted it out of reach, much to Naruto's disappointment.

"First, you must promise me that you will not treat this blade as a toy, Naruto," he said severely. "This is a battle-ready weapon and you could hurt or kill yourself or someone else with this if you do not treat it with respect," Naruto immediately sobered, for once reading the seriousness of the situation correctly.

"Alright, old man, I promise."

Sarutobi nodded in satisfaction before handing the weapon to Naruto and passing along four scrolls that had been bundled with the weapon. "This blade would have been used by your mother if she had possessed a desire to learn Kenjutsu, use it well, Naruto."

It warmed the old Hokage's heart to see the look of happiness and gratitude in Naruto's eyes. "Thanks a bunch, old ma-" he hesitated for just a moment, "I mean, Hokage-sama," he said with a very respectful bow, tears forming in his eyes, "This means a lot to me."

He seemed surprised when Sarutobi grasped him by his shoulders and drew him into a hug. "Happy birthday, Naruto."

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It was all Naruto could do to get the door of his apartment unlocked. His hands were shaking so badly in anticipation that he almost dropped his key twice before he could get it into the lock. Finally, he succeeded in opening the door and rushed to drop the scrolls off on his table.

For several moments all he did was look at the sword in his hands. The scabbard was coated with a lacquer a deep blue color so dark it was almost black with a pattern of spirals and waves done in an equally dark red. The Tsuka was wrapped in dark blue silk and what appeared to be some sort of rough leather. All in all, the weapon was beautiful. Naruto reached out, intending to draw the blade, but hesitated before his hand could touch its hilt, the promise he'd given the Hokage briefly replaying itself in his memory.

Regretfully, he placed the sword aside before opening the first of the scrolls that had come with the blade and began to read.

"To whoever is reading this message," he read aloud, "If you aren't an Uzumaki, throw the scroll as hard as you can and run in the opposite direction. Our clan does not tolerate thieves," Naruto blinked at the scroll a couple of times before noting a seal just below the statement he'd just read. "A security seal?" he asked aloud, scratching the back of his head all the while.

"Why didn't they just put one of those blood seal things on it so-" a thought cut him off in mid sentence. _Wait, the old man said they sent my mom these scrolls during a war. _Naruto bit his lip; pieces of an explanation were flitting around his head like butterflies, but they wouldn't quite come together. He pursed his lips before continuing to read, this time silently.

'_If you're still reading instead of fleeing for your life, then I'll assume that you are the intended recipient. Kushina, I apologize for the lethality of the seal placed on this document, but I could not be certain that it would not be intercepted before it came into your hands. I pray that we will be able to hold until Konoha can arrive to provide assistance to us, but I doubt that such a thing will be possible. It seems we have done our work too well. No less than three other villages have allied against us and struck preemptively to destroy us before we could call to our allies for support. I'm afraid they are likely to succeed._

'_With that belief in mind, I have sent you as much of our archives as I could on such short notice along with the messenger seeking aid from Konoha. I pray you will make good use of them if what I fear comes to pass._

'_The last object, though is likely the one that will bring you the most sorrow. Your grandfather's blade, Akisame, is sealed along with the scrolls I sent you. I wish I had been able to tell you in person, but that would likely have been impossible in any case. It was only his skill, and the courage of the team he led that allowed our clan and our village this slim chance of survival. Hopefully, this missive is premature, but I doubt that greatly. If things go as I expect, know this. All our love goes with you Kushina-chan. It was my greatest joy to be your father._

The letter was unsigned, but that made sense. His mother had doubtless known who it was from. For a few moments he let his mind wander, imagining what his life might have been like if he'd grown up as a member of a respected clan instead of a barely-tolerated orphan before his natural good temper kicked back in. _The last thing I want is to act like Sasuke-teme. _Naturally, his eyes shifted to the sword on the table and he couldn't help but to reach out and trace one of the spirals on the sheathe.

He was tempted to move straight to the sword, but resisted manfully as he opened the second scroll. This one too had a familiar seal at the top, though it did not give any warning to the person that opened it. Unrolling more of the scroll, Naruto arrived at the title and smiled widely as he read it. "The Uzumaki clan hi/kenjutsu. The Honorable Sword of the Roaring Tides," Naruto was practically giddy. "My clan even had their own secret sword style? Awesome!" he yelled literally bouncing in the chair. It was all he could do not to start in on the scroll immediately before another thought occurred to him. _What if there's something even more awesome in the other two scrolls?_

Immediately the blonde opened the next scroll. For a moment, he wilted a bit thinking it was a copy of the previous one before he noticed the words 'intermediate level' tacked onto the end of the description. "Alright!" he yelled in excitement. _There must be a lot of awesome techniques on these! I'll be an amazing swordsman in no time! _He thought before moving on to the final scroll. It was when he read that title, though, that he truly began to salivate.

"The Honorable Sword of the Roaring Tides: Supplementary Ninjutsu Archive," he read aloud, his voice rising in pitch so that the last word was little more than a squeak. _It's a whole scroll of ninjutsu and sword techniques that work together! _"Amazing!" he managed to say before the urge to grab the sword and start training conquered his restraint. He was about to carelessly grab the sword and run off before he again remembered his promise to the old man and calmed down.

Cautiously picking the weapon up he again looked at it and spoke, "So, your name is Autumn Rain, huh?" for several more moments, Naruto simply traced the patterns before carefully drawing the blade from its sheathe. His breath caught in his throat as he looked at the wavelike pattern of the steel that would, in another world, be called Damascene.

_Beautiful._ It was the only word that did the sword justice. It was different than the weapon the ninja he'd observed earlier had used. For one, it was curved where the other's blade had been straight. For another . . . _It's long. _Naruto realized, _Too long, in fact. _He laid the blade along the scabbard, and just as he'd expected, it was a good two inches longer than its sheathe.

Naruto stared in shock. "That's not possible," he stated accusingly as he pointed to a sword that even _he _knew was breaking the laws of Physics. Experimentally, he sheathed the sword again just to be certain that it had, in fact, fit. When it once again slid into the sheathe right up to the Tsuba, Naruto just sat and stared for nearly a full minute.

However, not even a weapon that refused to obey natural laws could dampen the blonde's spirits for long. Instead, Naruto made a mental note to ask the old man Hokage about it the next time he saw him and immediately made for his favorite training field. _I'll prove I have what it takes to be Hokage one day. Believe it!_

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Terminology

Tsuka: the part of the sword where one's hand goes (the 'rough leather' referenced in the story is actually stingray skin, but I wouldn't expect Naruto to know that)

Akisame: As is stated above it translates as autumn rain. This fits better with actual Japanese tradition (in which swords were rarely named) as opposed to Hollywood stories(in which every sword ever made has a name and glowy super powers of Epic Awesome)

Tsuba: The part of the sword that keeps another swordsman from lopping one's fingers off aka the handguard.

Alright! The first chapter of my first posted fic! Please take the time to tell me how I can improve! I can use all the help I can get .

Until next time,

Shaydewalker


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note!

Another chapter of everyone's favorite fanfic! I wish anyway :3

Still, a big thanks to those who reviewed. I really didn't know what to expect, but I'm happy with the results. Also, thanks for the correction a certain reviewer gave me. I won't make that mistake again, at least.

IMPORTANT!

It took me a while, but I've finally decided on how the Konoha Ninja Academy works in my particular alternate universe. This is an example of plot hole filling for those of you who care (after all, if Naruto has already failed to graduate twice by the time he finally does graduate, why are his classmates his age?). The Academy is a two-year, intensive course designed to turn a civilian into a minimally capable Genin, or to give the children of one of the ninja clans a more thorough grounding in a wider variety of ninja lore than just their clan techniques. Civilian students start earlier than their counterparts from an established clan and are expected to fail the first time through(either their graduation exam or the Genin test). At this point, Naruto has already failed to graduate once, and has just started his second time through the academy (his first remediation). That means he and the rest of what will one day be the 'Rookie Nine' are in the same class. Since he has already completed a full two-year term, he can apply for graduation early his second time through the first year curriculum. In canon, he failed then too and had to repeat the second year with the same class before graduating.

Disclaimer!

I'm a Starving College Student, One Each. If you think I own Naruto, I have a bridge in New Mexico I'd like to sell you.

Naruto: Sage of the Broken Path

Naruto had been so incredibly excited in the wake of the revelation of his clan, bloodline limit, training scrolls, and . . . well, everything that had happened, that he overlooked a serious point. "Ugh! How am I supposed to train without a sparring partner!" Naruto looked again at the scroll rolled out in front of him and reread the key phrase. _'It is important, not only to practice kata, but also to spar with another ninja to increase one's understanding of the techniques.' _It was frustrating to have come so far in such a short time, only to hit a roadblock like this. He could work on a technique for hours, but without someone to practice with, he couldn't know if he was making any progress at all!

"And that Silent Killing Technique sounded so cool too!" he whined aloud before picking up Akisame and his scrolls and starting off towards his apartment, thinking the whole time about how he could get someone to spar with. _Sakura-chan will just think I'm asking her on another date and tell me no. _Naruto admitted to himself. It wasn't an easy admission to make, either. Back before she'd met Ino, he and Sakura had been friends of a sort. However, while he'd tried to hold onto one of the few people to treat him kindly, she had become just another one of the popular girls in his class.

Oh, and a Sasuke-obsessed fangirl. Couldn't forget that. Naruto shook his head to clear it. _No. I will not turn into a brooding bastard like Sasuke-teme. _Still, that was one of his classmates out. More thought ruled out Shikamaru. The Nara was too lazy to put in the effort. That, in turn, ruled out Choji by association, since it seemed like he and his best friend were tied together at the wrist or something. Kiba was also out. Even though the two had a mutual appreciation of pranks, none of the Inuzuka could stand to spend time with him in close quarters without staring and growling in the back of their throats. The rest of the class was readily eliminated because they were, to quote the class slacker 'Troublesome' in one way or another. In the end, he was down to only two options: Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga. Both were quiet and reserved, but Hinata seemed like the best person to ask for help. _Since she has that fever so often she probably doesn't get to train much. I could help her with training after the Academy lets out on days when she's feeling well, and when she's not feeling well enough for training she can help me practice the Silent Killing Technique! _After all, it seemed like a fair proposition to him, and since Hinata was so nice it certainly couldn't hurt to ask. That decided, the remainder of the trip back to his apartment passed in relative happiness for the blonde.

Unfortunately for Naruto's happiness and peace of mind, he'd read the section of the instructional scroll that dealt with the maintenance of swords. As he was using an old rag and some oil to clean the blade, he felt a sudden depression under his fingers. "What the?" he asked and looked down at the sword and removed the cloth, only to see something that had definitely not been there before.

Etched into the blade were the words:

_Yo no naka o _

_nani-ni tatoemu_

Naruto stared in shock for a bare minute before sheathing the blade with exaggerated care, eyes wide. "I knew there was something wrong with it," he said as he picked the blade up and held it at arm's length as he carefully made his way out of his apartment. "Stupid too long sword in a too small sheathe. The old man gave me a possessed sword!"

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The door to his office crashed open with enough noise to rival a small fireworks display. For a fraction of a second, Sarutobi thought that an assassin had run afoul of one of the security seals that surrounded the hallway.

What he saw when he looked up was far stranger. Naruto Uzumaki was holding the sword he had been so eager to possess, the very one taken out of the office just a few hours before, like it was an Inland Taipan. Such was his shock that the Hokage failed to comment until Naruto had already laid the weapon on his desk and regained something of his usual personality.

"What's the big idea, old man! You gave me a cursed sword!" Naruto accused, eyeing the blade in question warily despite the fact that he was now more than three feet away from it. This gave Sarutobi pause. His first impression was that Naruto must have been almost injured to have been treating the blade with such care. But to call it cursed . . . _Something strange must have happened._

"Alright, Naruto, calm down and tell me what happened," he ordered the young blonde. The story that Naruto related was . . . well, unexpected seemed to fit the bill. Given the surprise with what had to be a set of expansion seals on the scabbard, Sarutobi could understand why the boy was spooked. He was just preparing to explain how a sword could fit into a sheathe that appeared to be too small to contain it when the blonde continued.

"-ething like _'Yo no neko' _or _'Ya na noko' _or-"

"Yo no naka o?" the Third asked his attention well and truly acquired.

"Yeah! That was it!" Naruto yelled before suddenly turning suspicious, "How'd you know that?"

"It's the first line of a rather well-known poem," Sarutobi explained as he picked up the sword and began to draw it from its sheathe, already slipping into his teaching voice. He'd barely begun to draw the blade when his danger sense spiked. Unfortunately, by that time it was too late.

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Naruto's eyes widened as a blast of what looked like chain lightning fried the Hokage, the Hokage's desk, and most of the wall behind the desk. His jaw was just falling open in shock when the "Hokage" burst into a cloud of smoke and was replaced by an equally fried looking painting. Naruto turned his head to see the old man standing by the wall looking at his desk in shock. Shock, however quickly turned into concern as he looked over at the blonde.

"Naruto, I need to know. Did you cut yourself on that blade? Even bleed on it from an open cut?" the Third asked, his eyes glittering with concern.

"No," Naruto responded, confused.

"Did you channel chakra into it? Or say your full name while holding it?" the old man continued.

Naruto had to stop and think for a moment before he answered, "No,"

The Hokage stopped and thought carefully for several seconds. "There are other ways of activating a truly cursed weapon, but the odds of you having accidentally triggered any of them are remote to say the least," he concluded aloud.

"That," he continued, indicating his somewhat cooked work area, "was most likely the result of a security seal on either the sword or the sheath."

"So, it isn't cursed?" Naruto asked, still wary of the blade.

"Likely not,"

"But what about the writing on it?" he demanded persistently.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted, those words are the start of a rather well-known poem," The Hokage, once again using his 'Professor' voice continued. "If you would kindly draw the sword, I'll check to make sure. However, it is most likely that the weapon is entirely benign." After a moment the Hokage corrected himself, "Well, as benign as any mastercrafted heirloom blade ever is."

Naruto, still eyeing the sword suspiciously asked, "And you're certain it won't try to kill me like it did you?"

The old man laughed aloud at that as he picked up his pipe, "Since it didn't do you any harm when you drew it to train, I can only conclude that it recognizes you as its wielder. I suspect that the security seals built into it decided I was attempting to steal it and reacted accordingly."

At that statement, Naruto winced and the Hokage immediately picked up on it, raising an eyebrow in inquiry. "In my clan scrolls, it said that the Uzumaki didn't put up with thieves," Naruto explained, "I'd sort of forgotten about that," he said as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

Sarutobi chuckled a bit at that, "Most clans don't," he said with a wry smile before nudging the sword closer to Naruto with his pipe.

Naruto, in turn, cautiously took hold of his sword. When it did not immediately attempt to electro-fry him, he began to carefully draw it. Once it was fully drawn, he laid it down beside the scabbard to show how much longer the blade was than the sheathe that held it. Then he blinked in surprise, "Hey! The writing's gone!"

"Strange," the Hokage said as he looked at the blade. "When you said that the blade was longer than the sheathe I expected it to be significantly longer." The old man shook his head slightly, "I suppose they were simply being subtle in their attempt at surprise," he said, though even Naruto could tell that he wasn't quite satisfied with the explaination. "Now, you said that the words appeared when you were cleaning the blade, correct?" When Naruto nodded, the Hokage continued, "Then if you would run your hand down the flat of the blade?" he requested.

Naruto did as he was asked and the same kanji as before appeared on the blade. "_Living in this world - to what shall I compare it?_" the Hokage translated from the somewhat archaic script. "Alright, Naruto, turn it over and do the same on the opposite side," Once again, Naruto did as the Hokage directed.

That time, however, nothing happened. Naruto looked from the blade of his sword to the old man inquiringly. Sarutobi, in turn looked surprised. "Strange, I expected to see the other half of the poem."

Once again nervous, Naruto asked, "So, is that a bad thing?"

The Hokage frowned in thought before answering. "No, no I don't believe so. For whatever reason they simply didn't put the other half of the poem on the blade. Perhaps it was part of a lock-and-key system within Whirlpool. Part of a way to access the clan's secrets. I doubt we will ever know for certain."

Suddenly disappointed at not being able to solve the mystery, Naruto nodded before perking up, "So it's not cursed? Alright!" he yelled before grabbing the sword, sheathing it, and taking off out the door pausing only long enough to yell back a quick, "Thanks, old man!" at the Hokage.

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Now that he knew that Akisame wasn't going to try and kill him, his enthusiasm for training had come back twofold. Since he'd already practiced with his new sword for the day, that meant jutsu practice. Quickly unrolling his family's techniques he skipped he bit at the beginning and jumped down to read the title for the first entry then seemed to almost collapse in on himself, "Aw, man! _Mizu Bunshin_! Bunshin is my worst technique!" And this one seemed even harder than the one they taught at the academy. On the other hand . . . _These aren't just _any _jutsu. These are _my family's _jutsu. _Reaffirming, if only to himself, his dedication Naruto continued to read. "So the hand seals are Snake, Bird, and Tiger, huh? And I need a source of water to perform it?"

Naruto took a break from reading long enough to fill three of his bowls from the sink and set them on the floor. "Alright!" he said as he carefully made the three hand seals, trying to use the same amount of chakra as he normally would with the academy version of the technique. In this particular case focusing on making as many clones as possible with the chakra he put into the technique, he yelled, "_Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!_"

For once things appeared to be going well. Each of the bowls yielded up a stream of water that began to form what looked like a body.

That was roughly the point at which the plumbing that served the sink burst as all the excess chakra Naruto had put into the technique tried to draw enough water from his surroundings to create more clones. The explosion of water as the pressure equalized also served to neatly derail Naruto's focus on the jutsu with predictable results.

A suddenly soaked Naruto looked around his now soaking wet apartment almost blankly for a moment before glaring at the three inches of water on the floor and stomping off to get a mop.

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In the end it had taken until after dark to finish the initial cleanup after his water clone disaster, so it wasn't until the next day that Naruto had a chance to practice the new technique again. "This time, I'll just use a stream," he grumbled, "Should have thought of that the first time."

_On the other hand, _he admitted to himself, _if I hadn't had that accident I probably wouldn't have reread that section in the scroll. _And the entry on the water clone had contained some interesting information that he'd managed to miss the first time he read it. _I can actually control these clones. That means I can have them watch me while I do kata so they can make sure my forms are right. _It was just too bad that a clone that took too much damage would collapse back into water. If he'd actually been able to spar with his clones . . .

Naruto shook the thought off. It would have been neat, but it wouldn't work so there was no point acting like the Bastard about it.

Running through the hand seals again he called out the technique. Only to have it blow up in his face as his poor chakra control caused the jutsu to fail. Naruto growled at the mistake. He'd done better last night before the plumbing went and failed on him. Still he'd try again and again if he had to. Today was an off day from the academy, so it wasn't like there was anything else to do anyway.

In the end, it took forty-three attempts to get the technique down to the point that he could use it without it failing spectacularly and another fourteen to get the number of clones he wanted (more or less) when he used it. Exhausted and covered in scuff marks though he was, Naruto couldn't help but be impressed with himself. He wasn't even out of the academy yet, but he knew a C-ranked ninjutsu! "Heh, I am totally awesome!" he yelled before grinning at his half-dozen clones.

"Alright, guys! Spread out so one of you can see me from every angle and make sure these kata look exactly like what's on the scroll, okay?"

The training session that followed was quite probably the most annoying one ever. It seemed every ten seconds one of the clones would stop him and make a correction to his movements and every fifteen two or more of the clones would start arguing about the proper way of completing the form and have to pull out the scroll to decide who was right. Still, at the end of three hours Naruto was able to go all the way through the first kata of his family's Kenjutsu style without the clones stopping him to correct a movement.

Then, just to make sure, he ran through it two more times before calling it a night. As he finally settled down to sleep that night, he did so with an exhausted but satisfied smile on his face.

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By contrast, the next day at the academy was even harder to deal with than normal. Classes were _boring_ and taijutsu was worse than that.

Getting beaten was never fun, but it hurt more after learning so much the day before. Since no jutsu were allowed in sparring he couldn't use his new C-ranked jutsu to gain an advantage and since weapons weren't allowed he couldn't use any of what he'd started learning the day before about his family's Kenjutsu style. As a result, he got humiliated by Kiba who wasn't restricted by a weapon requirement in his family's style.

The fact that Kiba was honestly _better _than him at Taijutsu, for the moment at least, didn't help the matter. In fact, in his rush to leave after his classes were over for the day, he nearly forgot to talk to Hinata.

Fortunately, the pale-eyed girl was still around when he went looking for her.

"Hey, Hinata!" he said exuberantly when he doubled back and found her exiting their class room. Almost immediately he noticed that the Hyuga's face was very red. "Oh, are you not feeling well, Hinata?"

The pale-eyed girl swallowed heavily before responding haltingly, "N-no N-naruto, I'm a-alright."

Naruto gave her a concerned look for a moment before asking, "Are you sure?" at her hurried nod he continued, "Well, I was wondering if you would like to help me with some training after class," he said while scratching at the back of his head nervously, his eyes nearly squinted shut in a nervous grin.

The sudden thumping sound a few seconds later had him opening his eyes only to find that Hinata had passed out. Quickly moving to her side, he dropped to his knees and began to try to check her temperature and shake her awake all at the same time. However, before he could do much more than determine that she was still alive, the door to the classroom opened and a red-eyed Kunoichi stepped into the room.

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And that's the end of another chapter! I considered writing more on this, but I really couldn't come up with a better place to end it. Besides its taken nearly twice as long as I thought it would for me to get an update out.

Like it? Love it? Loathe it? Click that shiny review button and let me know. I can't get better without feedback :)

Until the next update,

Shaydewalker


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note!

Sorry for the wait, but as I tried to write this chapter I came to the inescapable conclusion that I sucked at writing Kurenai, and I sucked at it _badly_. It's taken me this long to finally put something together that didn't totally suck.

Disclaimer!

I'm a Starving College Student, One Each. If you think I own Naruto, I have a bridge in New Mexico I'd like to sell you.

Naruto: Sage of the Broken Path

Kurenai Yuuhi was running late.

Normally she would have been at the Academy and waiting for her charge to finish classes for the day. Today, however, had not been a normal day. For a moment, her thoughts slipped back to what she'd seen in the last few hours and she shuddered.

She considered herself a well experienced Chuunin; in a year or two she could probably qualify for Jounin. Still, none of that had prepared her for what she'd seen earlier that day. Even thinking about it caused her to shudder. How _anyone_ could do that to—

She forcefully cut off that line of thought as she arrived at the Academy only to pause in surprise as she registered the disturbing lack of her charge. A dozen possible scenarios crossed through her mind in a heartbeat. She knew well how Cloud coveted the Hyuga bloodline and what she'd seen earlier in the day flitted back through her mind. Only this time, the dismembered and preserved victims all bore Hinata's face.

Still, she clamped down on her nascent panic attack. She was a Chuunin of Konohagakure no Sato. She _refused _to act like some witless civilian. Taking a deep breath, she sifted through the most likely possibilities. _She might have started home by herself, but I seriously doubt she'd go against her Father's orders like that. _The head of the Hyuga clan could be incredibly intimidating even to her. An academy student defying him? Not likely. Especially for something as trivial as a walk home. Much more likely, she'd simply gotten held up for one reason or another.

Making certain that no evidence of her aborted panic attack showed in her expression, Kurenai headed for Hinata's classroom at a carefully calculated pace. Outwardly, she was projecting confidence and serenity. Inwardly, she was trying to clamp down on her still racing heart. She'd not known the young Hyuga heiress long, but it was nearly impossible not to fall in love with the shy girl.

Kurenai shook her head as she arrived at Hinata's classroom, glad that the walk had allowed her to regain her composure and push that morning's mission out of her thoughts. She opened the door, expecting to see the Hyuga heiress waiting or talking to an instructor. Instead her charge was passed out on the ground with a certain blond kneeling beside her looking as panicked as Kurenai had felt.

For just a moment, Kurenai entertained a host of suspicions about the scene in front of her. Fortunately for the Kyuubi container, however, she had known Hinata long enough to have discovered the girl's (extremely poorly) hidden crush on the boy. As a result, she stomped all over her instinctual response and simply raised her left eyebrow at the clueless blond.

"Oh, hey! You're the one who always looks after Hinata, right? I think her illness must be getting worse again!" the entirely oblivious boy exclaimed in concern. Kurenai could only shake her head in disbelief. When Naruto noticed her lack of concern his brow furrowed, "Hey! She could be really sick if she passed out like this!"

_He may be as thick as stone, but at least his heart is in the right place. _That was, unfortunately, better than the girl's own father. "She's not sick, Naruto."

"Oh," the blond said uncertainly, "then what's wrong with her?"

Kurenai did her best to smother a smile, "If I have to tell you, you're probably not capable of understanding yet." Knowing he'd been insulted, Naruto prepared to respond in kind, but the Genjutsu specialist didn't give him the chance. "What were you discussing before Hinata passed out?" she asked as she pulled some smelling salts out of her white wrap.

This handily distracted Naruto and refocused his attention on the recovering Hinata, "It was weird. She seemed fine until I asked her if she'd like to join me after class for some extra training." Hearing a small "Eep!" sound, Naruto looked down just in time to see the newly conscious Hinata pass out once more. "See! See!"

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Naruto looked over again just to make sure the pale-eyed girl was still conscious. It was a relief to find out that she wasn't sick, but on the other hand, it was odd how she kept passing out all the time. Shaking his head a bit to clear his thoughts, Naruto turned back to the red-eyed woman who always picked Hinata up after classes at the academy let out when something occurred to him. "Oh, I probably should have asked you about it too anyway," he said rubbing the back of his head. "I guess I just wasn't thinking, ah-" he trailed off, realizing he didn't know the woman's name.

Noticing his embarrassment, she smiled a bit at him and introduced herself, "Kurenai Yuuhi, I'm a Chuunin. It's one of my ongoing missions to make sure Hinata makes it to and from the Academy safely."

Naruto, still being somewhat naïve immediately made an intuitive jump that, while technically correct, was arrived at for all the wrong reasons. "You mean Hinata's like a princess?" he asked, assuming that only someone really important would have a ninja, a Chuunin of the Leaf no less, permanently assigned to her just to make sure that she got to school every day.

Kurenai nodded while Hinata's whole head turned red. For a moment Naruto was worried that she was going to pass out again, but somehow she managed not to. "She's the heir to Hiashi Hyuga, the head of the Hyuga clan. Thanks to their dojutsu they're one of the most important clans in the village."

Naruto nodded his understanding before another thought struck him. "Oh," he said as his shoulders fell, "then you've probably got way too much to do to spend time training with me huh?" he asked, momentarily letting his disappointment show before giving both of them one of his trademark foxy smiles. "I understand. I'm sorry to have bee-"

"No!" Hinata yelled, eyes wide before slapping both hands across her mouth. "I m-mean, I'd really l-like to train w-with you." she said, looking at Kurenai pleadingly.

Kurenai winced just a bit, but Naruto still noticed. He looked, really _looked _at Hinata for a long moment before nodding almost absently. _She's definitely serious,_ he decided, _but her bodyguard seems worried. I wonder . . ._ Then something occurred to him. If she was that important to her clan, she probably had to train hard to learn all the secret clan techniques just like he had to. She, on the other hand, had a whole clan to help her. He blinked, _Maybe . . ._

He looked up and met Kurenai's red eyes trying to convey his sincerity to her. "I don't want to hurt Hinata's training in the Hyuga clan techniques," he said seriously, "but I would still be taking time away from her own training," and what a clever prank they were pulling letting everyone think that Hinata was sick all the time. _Must be a really good way to keep people from knowing how strong she really is. _After all, the best pranks kept people guessing even after they were finished. With that thought a small smile stole over his face as he continued, "So since I'm taking time away from her studies, it'd only be fair to teach her some of my clan's techniques in exchange."

After all, he was always on the lookout for awesome new jutsu. Why wouldn't Hinata's clan be too? On the other hand, the Chuunin's shocked look seemed to suggest that his offer was definitely out of the ordinary. As did the sudden thud of Hinata once again passing out.

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Kurenai's thought process came to a complete stop. _That's impossible,_ was the first thought to go through her head, but it was quickly ignored. Impossible or not, the blonde wasn't casually cruel like some children his age could be. _He wouldn't use Hinata's crush as a weapon against her. For that matter I doubt he's even capable of that sort of casual cruelty. _

Despite popular opinion from the civilians and even some shinobi who really ought to have known better, it was obvious the kid didn't have a mean bone in his body. Which was fortunate. For him. _If he'd been teasing Hinata with what she wanted most only to laugh in her face, I'd have given him a lobotomy._

The kid looked nervously from her to Hinata and back, "Um, did I say something wrong?"

Kurenai pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. _He has no idea. _And of course he wouldn't, it was common knowledge that he'd grown up alone since the Hokage couldn't trust anyone to care for him without trying to kill him. There was no way he'd know the unspoken code of conduct between Konoha's great clans. Giving the kid an amused look, she took mercy on him and explained. "You just asked her to marry you."

The kid's jaw seemed almost to come unhinged it dropped so far open. "What!" he demanded, eyes wide.

"The only way to learn clan techniques in Konoha is to become _part_ of the clan," Kurenai continued just before another thought occurred to her. "Just what clan are you the heir of?"

"The Uzumaki clan," he said. His tone clearly adding the unspoken _'idiot' _to the end of his statement.

And Kurenai suddenly found herself sitting while she stared at him. Like everyone who studied history, she knew of the Uzumaki. As one historian had so pithily stated, _"What does not kill an Uzumaki immediately tends not to kill him at all," _No wonder the brat had survived all the people that were out to kill him. Poison would be all but useless and even physical wounds would heal more quickly than most. "But you're hair's blonde!" she all but yelled. Naruto just looked at her, confused. "Uzumaki had red hair! Always!"

"Well I don't," he said as he scowled at her, "And the old man gave me some of my clan scrolls and the security seals on my sword didn't try to kill me like they did him either!"

Which served to remind her of two of the other salient points of the discussion. The Uzumaki had favored both sealing and swordsmanship. And if the Hokage had given Naruto some of the clan's secrets . . .

_He needs someone to work with him. Someone he trusts. _On the one hand it was quite flattering to her and to her charge that he was willing to approach them with this. On the other hand . . .

_On the other hand indeed. _As far as she knew, there was nothing in the written or unwritten traditions to cover the situation Naruto was in. It was especially troubling given that the girl he had chosen to ask was the heiress of another clan. Kurenai was opening her mouth to explain just how and why what he wanted was impossible when Hinata woke up. Kurenai took one look at her eyes and her mouth drifted closed again.

_I have to do something. _The only problem was deciding _what _to do. Trying to ignore the blonde's offer or downplaying it was not an option. She might not have known Hinata long, but even she could tell that the traditional Hyuga clan techniques were not well matched for the girl's build and temperament. The Gentle Fist Style practiced by the Hyuga was what was colloquially referred to as an Earth/Lightning style. It required solid footing and a firm stance and was a speed-based style rather than a strength based 'Fire' style.

On paper, it sounded like a good style for a kunoichi to learn, given that it helped compensate for a male's unfair advantage in upper body strength. In reality, Hinata, by both temperament and build, was far more suited for a Water/Air style that emphasized evasion and counterattack instead of the Gentle Fist's deflection or blocking and direct assault. The Hyuga Elders, however, would never have acceded to teaching the heiress of the clan anything but the clan's traditional style.

_So,_ she considered, _her clan has made itself part of the problem. _She'd known that for quite a while. For having the 'All Seeing Eyes' the Byakugan provided, the Main Branch of the Hyuga clan seemed to be quite blind to some things. _How can I use that?_

The thought caught Kurenai by surprise. Was she seriously contemplating lying to one of the most respected clans in Konoha? _Can't lie to a Hyuga. Especially can't lie to a Jounin. Their observation training means that they'll pick it up. Have to lie by telling the truth. _So, yes, she was planning on deliberately misleading the Hyuga. A hysterical giggle almost slipped out as she realized it. But somehow, in the few weeks she'd known Hinata, the little heiress had slipped her way past Kurenai's professional detachment. Once again, she saw those dead children from Orochimaru's once-hidden lab, and again they had Hinata's face, but this time she could feel the accusation from them 'I died because you didn't help me,' 'I died because I wasn't prepared.'

Even beyond that, it was obviously what she wanted. And Kurenai found that she couldn't ignore the needs of these two children. Why not use two problems to solve each other?

"Alright," Kurenai said as she cleared those thoughts from her mind with prejudice, "I'll help."

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_Perhaps I should have worded that differently. _Kurenai considered as she massaged the bridge of her nose. Bad enough that Hinata had gone an almost fluorescent red and passed out again, but Naruto had somehow translated 'I'll help,' into, 'You'll be Hokage by next week.' It was irritating.

Before she could even start on a plan to mislead the head of the Hyuga clan without actually lying to him, she'd had to pull both of the academy students aside to explain the broad strokes of what would have to happen. _And who the hell would have thought that convincing Naruto that he couldn't be seen to make huge strides overnight in his classes, hell, that there might not be any sudden enormous improvement at all, would be the _easy _part. _

Of course, most of the trouble with Hinata had stemmed from her inability to remain conscious for more than a minute at a time. All it took was one thought that what she was doing could technically, sort-of be considered as a de facto form of marriage to her crush and she was out like a light. It probably also hadn't helped that her only idea for a cover for why they were late returning from the academy was for Hinata to have to ask her questions about feminine issues. _Why is it always the quiet ones? _She considered as she remembered Hinata's glances (and subsequent nose bleed) after a departing Naruto when the topic had first come up. _That_ had necessitated an explanation that she was _not_,in fact, proposing a 'How to' session, but more a series of questions that a young girl without a mother might ask an older female that she respected.

That had, in turn, devolved into an _actual _discussion of the issues in question because Hinata was far too shy to have actually asked anyone before.

Of course, the Hyuga that had showed up during the discussion looking for them would serve as a credible source if the girl's father wanted confirmation. The fact that their talk had been interrupted would also cover for any spontaneous blushing Hinata happened to exhibit for the rest of the day . . . or the week. _After all, everyone knows that Hinata is terminally shy. _Embarrassment afterwards would be perfectly normal.

Or that, at least, was the theory. It wouldn't matter at all if she couldn't blow smoke up Hiashi's ass convincingly enough. _And now I'm channeling Anko. Perfect. _She thought just as the doors to the Hyuga clan leader's study were opened by a member of the branch house.

The normal and customary niceties were surprisingly brief. A bare minute into the conversation Hiashi came to the point. "I understand that you have a proposal concerning Hinata?" he asked, eyes drilling into hers. It took all her control not to do something incriminating.

_Why did I think this was a good idea again? _"Yes, sir," she said in a carefully controlled tone. For a moment, he simply stared at her before turning around and motioning her to follow.

Hiashi took a seat behind his desk before offering her a seat. Frankly, that was more respect than she'd expected him to show her. On the other hand . . .

"Before you begin," the head of the Hyuga clan said unexpectedly, "I must admit I owe you my gratitude. That you were willing to fill the deficiencies in Hinata's . . . education earlier today is appreciated by the Hyuga clan," he continued, only barely inclining his head. On the surface it seemed like the typical response of a grateful but reserved father.

His last sentence, however, gave it away. _Doesn't give a damn that Hinata might have been scared, or that she might have been embarrassed. All he cares about is that her ignorance might have embarrassed the clan. _And once again it was all she could do not to react. Especially when it occurred to her that she could _use _this. "It was no trouble, Hyuga-sama. I consider it part of my ongoing mission to watch over her," she said carefully speaking only truth and giving a rather deeper bow in return. This seemed to please Hiashi at least. The corners of his eyes seemed just a fraction more relaxed than they had beforehand at least, and Kurenai thanked the Kami for the observational skills she'd developed as a Genjutsu specialist.

"Now," the Hyuga head changed the subject, "what is it you wished to discuss about Hinata?"

_And here comes the hard part. _"I do not mean to give offence," she prefaced her statement, carefully _not _indicating whom she desired to avoid offending, when Hiashi nodded she continued "It has come to my attention that Hinata is not responding as well as expected to the more traditional Hyuga clan taijutsu techniques." The clan head's expression managed to lock down even tighter that it had before and Kurenai continued quickly, "As I said, I have no desire to offend. I am sure her tutors are more than competent," _at _something _anyway, since they sure as hell can't teach. _"I bring it up because it is easier to be a bodyguard for someone who is . . . capable of assisting in their own defense." _And now the ball is in his court. _Hiashi didn't immediately react, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. And as the silence lengthened it got harder and harder for Kurenai to keep from fidgeting. The whole plan rested on how Hiashi interpreted the subtleties.

"I believe I understand," he replied after a few more seconds of thought. Then his hands were busy preparing a document, and Kurenai was able to relax fractionally. "What do you plan on teaching her?" he asked as he wrote.

That one was a little hard to interpret. _A request to stay away from taijutsu? Or a request that I focus on it? _Or it could be something else altogether. Reading Hiashi Hyuga was _hard_. "I intend to start with Escape and Evasion training and then, assuming she has an elemental affinity I can help with, proceed with training in that element. If she has an element I am unable to assist her in learning, I will focus instead on physical training." _Please ask about it, please ask about it, please ask about-_

"Not Genjutsu?" Hiashi asked, and Kurenai tried not to smile.

_Hook, line, sinker. _"While she has the chakra control required to learn Genjutsu, such techniques are not well respected in the Hyuga clan." For the first time in the conversation, Hiashi's expression evidenced his surprise. His eyes widened a fraction of a millimeter and his eyebrows tried to rise before he brought himself under control. He seemed ready to speak, but Kurenai continues before he had a chance. "Or perhaps I should have said, Genjutsu use is not well respected _within _the clan." Hiashi looked at her for a long moment before he refocused on finishing the document he was writing up.

Suddenly, Kurenai noted that her previous anxiety was gone. _That last bit was the tipping point, _she recognized. She had gone from having the careful support of the Head of the Clan, to having his _enthusiastic _support. _Because I convinced him I wasn't trying to get a leg up in my chances for the Jounin selection exam, _that, and knowing that because the Byakugan rendered Genjutsu useless against them, that Hyuga clan members (and especially main branch members) simply didn't learn the techniques. _They might respect outsiders for their specialty, but they would never respect a member of the clan for the ability._

Hiashi finished the document he'd been working on and pulsed his chakra to dry the ink before handing it to her. "Take this to the family dojo and give it to Hinata's sensei. He will know not to expect her for several hours after the academy and he will cancel her morning lessons on the weekends so that you will have time to teach her," he said.

Kurenai bowed respectfully. "Thank you for the opportunity," she said and turned away. As she began to open the door, however, the Hyuga clan head spoke once more.

"Thank _you_," he said, and suddenly Kurenai realized that she was seeing Hiashi Hyuga: Father, and not Hiashi Hyuga: Clan Head, as he returned her bow.

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It was only later that night as she was preparing to crawl into her bed that Kurenai realized that she had just effectively and worse _voluntarily_ given up all her free time for the next two years. Her scream of frustration and perhaps the slightest bit of despair was heard clearly by more than half the village.

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And that's a wrap! Once again I can only apologize that this chapter has taken so long. My only excuse is that I've written it four times before this and ended up deleting each of them and starting over. When they were more than two thirds done. Frankly I'm still not totally happy with this incarnation of the chapter, but I'm at least happy enough not to delete it and start over.

Secondly, I'd like to warn you that the dreaded time skip will be making an appearance. I would, however, like to solicit reader opinion on whether you'd like to have one more chapter before it occurs. I'm not promising to abide by the results, but to poll will be available for you to air your opinion.

Thanks again for putting up with the wait.

Shaydewalker.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note!

Thanks for the reviews and the votes from last chapter. I appreciate the input from all of you, but in the end I have to do what works with my plan for the fic. To that end, I decided to go with the time skip this chapter. Frankly, it just fit too well not to. Sorry to those of you who wanted a bit more time beforehand. Still, I think that I can arrange something that will give you a window into the year-and-a-half time skip. Expect the occasional flashback i.e. Highlander to crop up in the telling.

Disclaimer!

I'm a Starving College Student, One Each. If you think I own Naruto, I have a bridge in New Mexico I'd like to sell you.

Naruto: Sage of the Broken Path

Naruto watched as his teacher's eyes squinted shut and the thrust that he thought was going to win him the match slid just to the side of Kurenai's throat. Mentally cursing himself he pulled Akisame back into a defensive posture even as the recently promoted Jounin counterattacked with her own Kodachi. Naruto once again embraced the Soul of the Waters, letting the flow of combat pass around him and smoothly avoiding the red-eyed kunoichi's strikes, waiting for another opportunity to counterattack.

Kurenai, however, wasn't making it easy. It took only a fraction of a second for Naruto to recognize the shift in form from Kurenai's preferred Flow of the Roaring Tides to Flowing Waters, but the delay nearly cost him the match. The abnormally unpredictable movements utilized in the Flowing Waters form allowed her to close in with deceptive speed and he was forced to frantically change the angle of his blade to parry his instructor's strike away. Unfortunately, he was unable to block the spinning kick that followed on the heels of her strike, and the transferred momentum knocked him out of the sparring circle. Naruto's lips pursed as he abandoned Form Two for the more basic, but more balanced Form One, knowing that he had less than thirty seconds to get back into the circle before the match would go to his teacher by default.

This time Form One met Form One and the clash was both rapid and brutal, Kurenai engaging from just within the lines while Naruto tried to push around her and back into the circle. Three times Kurenai parried slashes aside before Naruto tried a flat thrust with his blade. It too was parried aside. Unfortunately for Kurenai, her blond student had anticipated both the block and the stance, and had let himself overextend by just a hair. Kurenai, immediately recognized his 'vulnerability' and struck.

Just in time for Naruto to switch to Form Three and roll under her strike and back into the designated area just before his Kurenai-imposed out of bounds grace period would have expired. Suddenly it was Kurenai who was at a disadvantage, pinned between the edge of the ring and her student. Both took just a moment to catch their breath before they smiled and reengaged.

A flurry of blows passed between the two. A high slash was parried aside, but the riposte was deflected. The deflection turned into a strike at the legs that was parried into the ground. The return strike high was ducked under and Kurenai finally got in a solid blow as she landed a kick to Naruto's ribs. It was a hard hit, but not enough to cause a fracture; what it did, however, was knock him badly off balance. It took him only a few seconds to recover, but by then it was too late. Kurenai's Kodachi slid through a hole in his defenses and came to a stop a hair's breadth from his throat.

Naruto frowned at the blade before glaring up at his teacher. "Alright, I admit it, I was wrong. Sparring with live blades _is_ different," he said as he slid Akisame back into its sheathe.

Kurenai smiled at him as she too sheathed her blade. "It's refreshing to actually have more experience than you in at least one aspect of Kenjutsu. Running the forms with a live blade is one thing, but actually sparring is just different enough than working with practice blades that you have to take a few weeks to get used to it. I've actually used this blade on missions, and it almost got me killed the first time."

Naruto nodded before the serious expression on his face melted into a smile, "Alright, next time we spar I'll definitely beat you, believe it!"

Kurenai smiled down at the brat in return before reaching over and mussing his hair. "Aw, Naruto-chan, it's good to have goals," she teased.

"Very funny, Kurenai," he said as he attempted to get his hair back in order, "and don't call me chan!" he concluded with a glare. "And I beat you three times last week! Don't act like I'm hopeless." he said as he processed his instructor's taunt.

"Ah, but that was before we switched to live blades," she said, only half teasing. "Now, unless I'm much mistaken, I do believe I see Hinata waiting for us. Looks like you're just getting beaten all over the place today."

Naruto's head snapped up and looked to the edge of the rolling wall of mist that covered a large section of the forested training ground to find that Hinata was, in fact, sitting at the edge of that area with a small grin on her face. Whenever Kurenai pulled Naruto aside for some sparring, she had her chakra battery of a student create a couple dozen Water Clones and instruct them to hide within the bounds of a fog bank created by Naruto's Hidden Mist Technique. "Wow, Hinata, great job! How long have you been waiting?"

A faint blush spilled over her cheeks at the praise from her crush, "Not long. I got lucky today," she said.

Kurenai raised an eyebrow, "Now, Hinata, you know how I feel about that. Luck is-"

"Where hard work and preparation meet," the two students chorused back at her.

"Very good. You're a credit to your teacher."

Naruto's face immediately split into a grin, "I'll make sure that Iruka knows how highly you think of him."

Hinata giggled while Kurenai shot him a quelling look while trying not to laugh. "Alright, Brat, if you've still got that much energy left, I think a spar is in order," Kurenai said, and the wicked grin on her face gave Naruto pause, "You and Hinata to submission, no Ninjutsu allowed," immediately Naruto's jaw dropped.

_Talk about a handicap! _Not only were his best tricks out the window, but he couldn't even use a simulated death strike with his bokken to win since it was a submission match, and-

"Oh," Kurenai cut off his train of thought, "and you're using live steel too."

Naruto couldn't help it. He whimpered. _This is just taking revenge to a completely unfair level. _The first two restrictions had been bad enough, but having to use Akisame instead of a practice sword was overkill. _This is almost enough to make me long for the days when Hinata had to be badgered into hitting me._ Of course she'd gotten over that quickly enough given the right talking-to from Kurenai. And a guilt trip and puppy-dog eyes from himself. Still, there was nothing for it. Taking a careful stance he prepared for a pretty serious ass kicking from his best friend.

_Heck, even Hinata_ _looks like she feels guilty for having such a huge handicap. _On the other hand, she didn't look guilty _enough _to go easy on him. _Sometimes training sucks._

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Kurenai stood back and watched two of her students spar with an impassive look on her face. As she observed, she took a few moments to mentally review her spar with Naruto and had to suppress the desire to shake her head in appreciation. _Even for an Uzumaki, his progress is astounding. _She'd been working with the blond brat for a year and a half. A kid who was supposedly the dead last of his class. And despite the fact that she had the advantages of reach, strength, speed, and mass on him, he was still winning more than three quarters of their spars. _And at this rate, _she considered remembering just how close the previous match had been, despite the fact that he'd never used a live blade against anything other than clones, _he'll have fully compensated for using Akisame within the month. _

And it wasn't like she was a slouch either. In the last stage of the Jounin exam that had resulted in her promotion, she'd been evaluated by Yugao, one of the village's ANBU and an acknowledged master of Kenjutsu. She'd found out after the fact that most of the examiners had thought she'd go down in less than a minute. It was not an unrealistic expectation given that she hadn't evidenced any skill with a blade when she passed the Chuunin exams, nor had she sought out any formal instruction from a master since. In their position she would likely have suspected that she was trying to pad her resume as well. _And I'd have lost money right along with them,_ she thought, remembering the size of the pot Anko had won when she lasted almost half an hour against her opponent. And the share of that pot she'd gotten from the Special Jounin afterwards.

Still, the proprietary style of the Uzumaki had quite a bit to do with that victory. And even now, the only thing that had let her keep pace with the unholy terror was the fact that she knew his style every bit as well as he did. _And he still managed to surprise me and nearly win the match twice! _If all the kid's ancestors had shared his potential, she could definitely understand why it had taken such outrageous odds to defeat them at the start of the Second War.

Returning her full attention to the match in front of her, the recently promoted Jounin concealed a wince at a particularly nasty Juken strike and found it easier to do than she had more than a year and a half previously. Normally anymore it wasn't even an effort. The reason for today's exception was the rumors she'd heard recently.

_Specifically, the rumor that the Hyuga Elders are less than pleased that the heir of the clan is spending so much time away from the clan for her training. _The fact that she was in contention for the coveted position of Rookie of the Year at the academy was either unimportant to them or offensive since she obviously wasn't learning the skills she was using for her rank at home, despite the coup they would score to have one of their own hold the position two years in a row.

Even so, the most recent rumor she'd heard was that certain offended Elders intended to press the point. So, despite what Naruto thought, the one-sided massacre she was witnessing was not simply a case of her venting her spleen at him. First, Hinata needed a boost to her confidence. Second, Naruto really did need to get used to wielding live steel. Third . . . _Hinata needs to remember the discussion the Blond Blunder had with her right after we started training. _

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For the third time in a row, Hinata 'lost' the practice spar within thirty seconds. _Though, _Kurenai considered, _lost really isn't the word. To lose she'd first have to be participating. _And she wasn't. Whether it was her crushing shyness or something else entirely she was barely moving; by this time it was bad enough that even Naruto, he-whose-skull-is-denser-than-iron, appeared to have noticed.

And it seemed to have pissed him off. Almost instinctively, Kurenai moved to intervene, but a few moments later her rational mind reasserted itself. _Let's see what he has to say before I cut him off at the knees._

Fists clenched and head down Naruto stood in front of a visibly terrified Hinata for several moments, unmoving. When he did look up, Hinata flinched at the sudden movement. "Do you think I'm that weak?" he demanded, tears visible in his eyes. Hinata's jaw dropped open and she moved to try and answer, but the blond trampled all over whatever she'd intended to say. "Am I so pathetic that you won't even spar with me seriously?" This time he _did_ give her time to answer, but she was so dumbfounded by what he'd said that she simply stood there with her mouth hanging open. Naruto, of course completely misinterpreted what her expression meant.

"Fine!" he more than half yelled at her as he turned away, "If I'm so worthless, I won't bother you anymore then. I'll train by myself until I'm strong eno-" Once again, Kurenai, who had been preparing to intervene stomped on the impulse as a frantically babbling Hinata tackled her training partner from behind, herself on the verge of sobbing and for once forgetting to stutter.

"I'msorryIdidn'tmeanto!" she apologized as she desperately hugged the startled blond. "You're not weak at all! I'm the one who's weak. I can't even win a spar against my little sister," she admitted before breaking down into despairing sobs. "I'm useless! I can't even help you like I want t-"

And this time it was Naruto who cut Hinata off. "You're not weak! Just last week you beat three of the other kunoichi in sparring! You even beat Ino and she's right at the top of the class!"

Hinata, shocked by the way that Naruto's attitude had spun about a hundred and eighty degrees in his defense of her spoke before her brain-mouth filter could switch itself back on. "Because they were mean to you," she admitted before her eyes widened and her hands leapt from her grip on the blond to cross themselves over her mouth.

For a long moment there was silence between them: Hinata terminally embarrassed and Naruto's jaw moving without any sounds coming out.

Kurenai remembered that day, though she hadn't realized just what had prompted the savage beating she'd heard being discussed when she'd arrived to pick Hinata up. _Figures, she won't lift a finger to make things easier for herself, but when someone makes fun of Naruto, she's all over them like a mother Konoha Forest Grizzly defending her only cub. _Deciding to intervene before the situation could become any more awkward, Kurenai realized that Naruto had, in fact, given her an excellent opening to perhaps solve the problem once and for all.

"Hinata," she said, and the two preteens, reminded that someone else was present jumped apart like scalded cats, "not fighting Naruto at your full strength and ability is doing both of you a disservice," she said, making the reprimand as mild as she thought she could get away with. If you don't try your hardest then neither of you are going to learn anything from the lesson. In fact, it would be even worse than that, because Naruto would come to think he's stronger than he is. When he someday came up against a stronger opponent he'd be overconfident and likely get injured or worse." Seeing the stricken look in Hinata's eyes, Kurenai did her best to drive the point home. "That aside, as Naruto observed earlier, not fighting him at your full strength could also be interpreted as disrespect for his abilities and his ability to learn."

Hinata looked at her feet and her shoulders slumped as she mumbled an obviously heartfelt, "Sorry," and for a moment Kurenai was afraid she'd come down too hard on the girl's fragile ego.

But then Naruto was there with a hug that drew a surprised 'meep!' from the Hyuga, "No problem! I understand. You didn't mean it like I thought. I'm sorry for not understanding why you weren't going all out." Then a shy smile, a _real _smile, Kurenai noted, stole across his features as he asked, "Friends?"

Hinata nodded and smiled in return.

And then promptly realized her position and passed out.

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Kurenai repressed a smile at the memory and shook her head minutely as she concentrated once more on the present.

For all that Hinata had come out of her shell around her impromptu team, she still could not seem to bring herself to do so around her family. That was what the Hyuga elders were most likely counting on. Once again, if only in the privacy of her own thoughts, Kurenai recited the best piece of advice she'd ever received, the one that had set her on the path towards being a Genjutsu master. _If, for even one instant, you come to suspect that you are doing what your enemy _expects you to do_. Stop. And do something else._

Kurenai's expression slid into what might charitably have been called a smile, _I wonder how big a wrench I can throw into those assholes' plans?_

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Uzumaki Hi/Kenjutsu Style: The Honorable Sword of the Roaring Tides

Sword forms, beginner to advanced.

Flow of the Roaring Tides: Also called form one. This form emphasizes a smooth flow between defense and offense. A key part of this form is rapid, seamless changes between offense and defense to surprise and unbalance a foe. The most basic form of the Uzumaki Kenjutsu style.

Soul of the Waters: Form two of the Uzumaki clan Kenjutsu style. Based upon traditional philosophy. Which lasts longer: the mountains or the sea? This form focuses on defense and counterattack, taking advantage of an opponent's mistake to end the fight with one blow.

Flowing Waters Form: Form three of the Honorable Sword of the Roaring Tides. This form focuses on deceptive movements (both in speed and direction) Though it has applications for defense, it is primarily an offensive form, intended to push the enemy off balance or into a panic state before attacking.

Tidal Surge: Form four of the Uzumaki Kenjutsu style. This form is classified as an S-ranked form but is strangely labeled as both a requirement for learning and restricted use.

So, what do you think? Did I do an adequate job of slipping in some of the year and a half of training into the chapter? Or did you loathe it? Either way, I'd love to hear from you!

And, in the immortal words of Pete Abrams: That's it! I'm goin' back to bed.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note!

Hopefully this chapter isn't so late that everyone's lost interest. Would have had this out weeks ago, but I had a sudden inspiration for a chapter that won't need written for . . . twenty or so chapters yet and put down about 3k words on it instead of here. That and the first two scenes were really hard to write. Hiashi is a pain.

Disclaimer!

I'm a Starving College Student, One Each. If you think I own Naruto, I have a bridge in New Mexico I'd like to sell you.

Naruto: Sage of the Broken Path

Hinata walked carefully back towards her clan house deep in thought. What Kurenai had told her after her spar with Naruto was not precisely _surprising,_ but it was still unexpected.

_Pride,_ she decided finally, _it all comes down to my family's pride. _And despite whatever rationalization the Elders had come up with, the fact that she was in contention for the position of Rookie of the Year without being instructed solely or even primarily by members of her clan was stomping all over her clan's idiotic, irrational self-importance. Ultimately, however, the reasons were less important than the fact that she was going to have to deal with the consequences of what Naruto called 'The Old Fogies' and their dissatisfaction.

Hinata closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to anticipate what the elders would do to try and put her in her 'place.' _Pitting me against an adult of the clan would be meaningless. An academy student losing to an experienced ninja would be the expected outcome, not a disappointment. _That left clan members nearer to her own age. _Neji is already a Genin. He's also a member of the Branch House. _Even as . . . irritated as the elders were with her, their unthinking prejudice against the other half of their own clan was so great that they would never believe one of their sealed kin would be able to match a member of the Main House. That neatly left one real option. _Hanabi. _

Hinata took a calming breath and reminded herself not to fall in love with her own cleverness, remembering Kurenai's statement about logic often being nothing more than a way to be wrong with confidence. On the other hand, given the way Kurenai had set up her latest spar, it seemed like her teacher had reached the same conclusion. _Regardless, its best to have a contingency in place. So. . ._

On the one hand, Hanabi hadn't seen any of the skill she'd gained over the last year and a half. On the other hand, that was because she hadn't been able to bring herself to really _fight _her sister before. Ever.

That, of course, meant more meditation. Thankfully, Kurenai had come up with a way to help get her over her rather strong reluctance to fight. Hinata was equally thankful that her teacher had never told anyone else precisely what that meditation entailed. _I'm pretty sure that if anyone knew that I meditated by focusing on Naruto 'rewarding' me for winning my head would explode._

Still, the technique worked, and she'd also discovered that it had the unexpected side effect of mostly curing her of the tendency to pass out when her crush smiled at her.

_Alright, Hinata, reminisce later, strategize now. _Even with her recent improvement in speed, traditional Gentle Fist was out. Kurenai had explained _why _she'd had such difficulty learning her clan's traditional style a week into their time together; after that, they'd started working out ways to turn an earth/lightning style into one she could use effectively. Luckily, Kurenai had figured out quickly that Naruto's clan Kenjutsu style could be mugged for most of the footwork. That, at least would give her an advantage. Unfortunately, she'd never tested her style against someone with the Byakugan; in theory it should be effective, but . . .

'Should,' unfortunately, was unacceptable. _But in a taijutsu battle- _

The thought cut off abruptly as Hinata had an epiphany. _Who says it has to be a strictly physical battle? _Nothing in the clan's rules demanded it. It had simply become tradition based on the way the clan taught its young members. Focused as the were on the gentle fist from a young age, sparring and testing of younger members had naturally come to revolve around it. _And_, she considered with a smile as she recalled another of Kurenai's sayings,_ predictability is the greatest of tactical sins._

A smile stole across Hinata's face. _I need to ask Naruto about his modification to the Hidden Mist Technique. _The modified version of his clan technique was . . . well chakra intensive was something of an understatement. Like saying the Hokage knew a few techniques or that Suna was a little dry. _Thankfully it will be the _only _technique I have to use if this works out. _The current 'plan' was only the smallest kernel of an idea. It would require quite a bit of thought to refine it into a true strategy.

Even so, Hinata smiled. One of things she liked so well about Naruto, one of the things about him she'd chosen to emulate, was his capacity to put his nose to the grindstone and _work_. _They almost certainly won't move until after graduation, but even if the make an early attempt, I _will _be ready._

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Kurenai couldn't help but marvel at the differences between her early visits to Hiashi Hyuga's office and her more recent ones. The contrast was astounding. Before she'd started training Hinata, _And Naruto, and Yakumo, though if he doesn't know that already I'm certainly not going to tell him. _she'd been made to wait as much as three-quarters of an hour to speak to him after she arrived. Now . . .

"Kurenai, it is good to see you."

"Hyuga-sama." Now she was very nearly treated like a friend, and she was, in fact, treated better than many of the clan head's own advisors. _And I know he trusts me more than most if not all of his own clan's tutors. Certainly all of the combat ones. _That might have had to do with being the only person outside of her group of students to have seen examples of his oldest daughter's full capabilities.

That she had not been taught adequately by her previous tutors had become immediately and glaringly obvious.

It had also caused the clan head's respect for her, which had been rather higher than she'd expected beforehand, to increase drastically. The Hyuga's unthinking sense of superiority over Genjutsu users, once overcome, actually seemed to turn into an advantage; she had managed to impress Hiashi in spite of himself. As such, he always seemed to weigh any suggestions she made with extra care just to make certain the same automatic prejudice didn't cause him to ignore good advice because of who had given it.

"Would you care for something to drink?" he inquired in his customary calm tone. The fact that he made eye contact with her as he asked instead of continuing to labor over the pile of paperwork on his desk while making her wait was just another indication of how highly he'd come to think of her.

"No, thank you," And if that didn't immediately get Hiashi's attention nothing would have. It definitively signaled that this was a far more serious visit than he had expected. Certainly nothing so mundane as a progress report which was no doubt what he had been expecting.

"I see," he said, attention even more fully focused than before and an extra layer of formality seemed to settle over him. "What is it you needed to discuss, Kurenai-san?"

Kurenai weighed her words and tone carefully. Much as she was trusted, she was not a member of the clan, and Konoha's traditions about interfering in clan matters were very, very well entrenched. _The only safe way to bring up the subject is as a teacher fulfilling her responsibility to her student, _she finally decided. "Word has reached my ears that there are certain factions of the Hyuga Clan that are . . . dissatisfied with the performance of my charge," she began, imparting information that might not be known to him while at the same time remaining tactful. "One would inquire as to what could be done to end such unhappiness."

For a bare moment Hiashi-the-Clan-Head became Hiashi-the-Brassed-Off-Father as she spoke before he buried the flash of rage. _Clearly they've managed to be more discreet when they know someone's listening. _She definitely owed Anko a week long dango binge for the tip off.

"I assure you," the Hyuga spoke calmly, perfectly covering the emotions he was certainly feeling, "that any such comment could only have been made in ignorance." And if that comment didn't clearly tell her how much he thought of her skill as a teacher nothing would have. "No doubt when the time arrives, the doubters will come to realize their error." He didn't bother adding verbally, _And make sure Hinata's ready to make the point emphatically. _Frankly, he didn't need to.

But if that ominous statement and the following insinuation didn't indicate that _someone _or perhaps even _several_ someones were about to have a sack full of hammers land on their heads she'd resign her position, take up tea ceremony, and become a geisha. And not the kind that occasionally assassinated someone either.

"I'm relieved to hear you say that, Hiashi-sama."

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Naruto was still lying on the ground where he'd fallen after his spar against Hinata pretending to pout when she arrived.

"Hey, where's Kurenai and Hinata?" the speaker was pale with rather plain, straight brown hair and a pleasantly plain face that only ever became truly beautiful when she smiled. All of that was fine with her. Even though there were a surprising number of absolutely beautiful women who survived becoming kunoichi, there wasn't any sort of beauty requirement for the job.

What had kept Yakumo Kurama from joining the academy and becoming a ninja of the leaf was the fact that she'd been born premature. Badly so. She'd never gone into details, but the fact that she had survived her childhood was proof that she lived a charmed life. Unfortunately, she'd been sick often and her childhood illnesses had reflected themselves in her maturing body.

She was, in many ways, Naruto's exact opposite. She was not terribly strong or fast, she had small chakra reserves, and very little stamina. On the other hand, the Kami had gifted her with a quick mind and absolutely excellent chakra control.

And she possessed a greater measure of her clan's Bloodline Limit than anyone had ever seen in living memory.

Without that last bit, her parents would likely have prevented her from even attempting to achieve her dream. With it, her potential as a symbol of a clan that had been frequently marginalized by the Hyuga and the Uchiha's near absolute resistance to Genjutsu was simply too great to ignore.

It was only natural, then, that they request that the Hokage apprentice her to the best Genjutsu user in Konoha. Even as a Chunin that had been Kurenai Yuuhi. Like sword users, Konoha had a shortage of people skilled in the use of illusions. One of the reasons Kurenai felt that she'd made Jounin on her first try was the rarity of her twin specialties.

At first, Naruto knew, Kurenai had been reluctant to take on another student, given that she was already teaching two others and still doing missions herself. But she'd thought about it and quickly come to the decision to accept the frail Kurama heiress. After all, what better way to train for being a Jounin Sensei than to actually train a full team as practice?

"Kurenai heard that Hinata's folks are being morons. Sensei's off plotting and Hinata went home to plan." the blond finally answered, still pretending to pout.

"And you're lying in the dirt . . . why?" his companion and training partner asked as she squatted down beside him, somehow managing to make the act look ladylike.

Naruto, of course, had been waiting for her to move within optimal range for his attack. He turned to her, eyes heartrendingly sad and filled ever so slightly with tears and replied mournful, "Kurenai and Hinata beat me up." A theatrical snuffle was thrown in for effect, "You'll make it all better, right, Yakumo-chan?"

"No, really, why are you here? And lying on the ground?"

Naruto grumbled for a moment before kipping up, "Meanie," he complained with just a trace of pout to which the team's junior illusion specialist rolled her eyes and motioned at him to continue. "Oh, fine, Kurenai asked me to help you with your physical conditioning. And for the record they did both beat me at sparring today."

Yakumo groaned as she got back to her feet. She'd made a lot of improvement since she'd started working with the unofficial Team Kurenai, but she'd always be the weak link on the team physically speaking. Her strength and speed had both improved, but her stamina was still low. She had, however, learned to compensate somewhat for that with training in tree climbing and water walking. As her chakra reserves improved, she was able to use some of her chakra to reinforce her naturally weak body and turn it into at least an approximation of a reasonably fit academy student's. For a while.

Seeing the improvement, however, only seemed to make Kurenai more focused on her third student's physical abilities. Something about how improving her baseline physical abilities meant that she could reinforce them higher or something. Naruto had only been half paying attention and it had been several months ago. Mostly, he was concerned with what he'd been told to do today. _'Run her into the ground,' were Kurenai's exact words, but I know Yakumo likes to work with chakra more than just improving her stamina, soooooooooooo._

"It's not that bad. Besides, no one ever said we can't have fun at the same time! How about a tree hopping game of catch the devil?" That seemed to perk his teammate right up. Since she'd been too weak to play much as a kid, Yakumo was almost always up for a game disguised however thinly as training. _And considering how persistent she can be, I won't even have to fib a little bit when I tell Kurenai that I ran her into the ground._

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Japanese Idiom!

Chase the devil: roughly equivalent to the American game of tag.

Author's Note the Second!

Hopefully I managed to surprise some of you with Yakumo's presence in the story. Originally, she was not scheduled to appear; however, in my attempts to maintain continuity and prevent plot holes I realized I was about to tumble headlong into one and had to scramble to adapt. Since, in canon, it is strongly implied (or maybe stated outright, I can't remember) that it was Kurenai's lack of confidence that lead to her failure in teaching Yakumo, it would make no sense for her to give up in this AU.

My only real regret in this chapter is how long it took for me to write around the hole I'd dug for myself and decide what to do. Sorry it's so late .

Also, please review! It is, after all, the coin of the realm!


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note!

Welcome, once again, to another new chapter of the best Naruto fic on the web!

*_Ducks rotten vegetables and at least one shoe_*

Sorry, sorry. If you've read my other fic you know that I've been having trouble with getting the upcoming Thirty Xanatos Pileup sorted out. I think I have the SNAFU more or less unfucked by now, though. Hopefully it won't delay future chapters as much. In any case, there will be another of those training flashbacks I promised in this chapter. Hopefully, you won't feel quite so screwed over by the length this time either.

Also, something else to note. I got a lot of reviews last chapter that mentioned Hiashi. I have a feeling that he's much less of an asshat than he tends to be characterized as. Given that he's the head of the biggest, most powerful clan in Konoha since the Uchiha Massacre, he has to act in such a way as to preserve the clan's prestige in public. This includes _public_ solidarity with the clan elders. In private, however, I have the feeling he's just waiting impatiently for all of them to die off so he can do what he'd prefer to do. I.E. bringing the two branches of the clan closer together. You may construe that as a hint.

Disclaimer!

I'm a Starving College Student, One Each. If you think I own Naruto, I have a bridge in New Mexico I'd like to sell you.

Naruto: Sage of the Broken Path

Naruto sighed to himself as Mizuki droned on about the economic systems of something somewhere blah, blah, _freaking blah_.

On the one hand it was probably something a future Hokage would need to know. _On the other hand, he could probably serve in Torture and Interrogation. After half an hour he'd have prisoners begging to give up their secrets just to make him _stop talking. The information may have been important and maybe even interesting if presented well. The way Mizuki taught it was as dry as the desert in Wind Country. The blond sometimes wondered how this particular teacher had survived the Old Man's near clean sweep of the Academy the previous year after the way that several teachers had been sabotaging whole classes over their dislike of a certain orphan. He might not suck deliberately, but being a failure of this magnitude by accident seemed to be even worse.

Naruto was considering the merits of joining Shikamaru and Kiba in taking a nap when a piece of paper carefully folded into a shuriken landed on the desk in front of him. Reflexively keeping it corralled he looked up at the front of the class to see Mizuki still facing the board, apparently entirely unconcerned with the increasing number of sleeping Genin hopefuls. Never one to complain about a gift, Naruto carefully unfolded the Origami shuriken that could only have come from his teammate.

The request written on it painted a surprised expression across his features for a moment. _She already knows the Hidden Mist Technique,_ _so it's not like it'll be difficult to teach her the modification, but-_

Naruto's brain finally connected everything. _The Hyuga's eyes can see chakra but they can't see _through _it. She can give herself the advantage by making the battlefield one that plays to her strengths._

And since most of their training sessions and even days when Kurenai was out of the village on missions incorporated at least a half-hour or so of the Silent Killing version of chase the devil . . .

Had Iruka been in the room at that moment, Naruto's grin would have immediately set him to looking for the prank that _had _to be about to go off. Unfortunately the grin was short lived. There was a reason he was the one to summon up the fog bank that they used to prevent Hinata from walking all over them in their games. _The chakra requirement . . . I know the Hyuga have a lot more chakra than average ninja, but that technique uses a ton._

Just calling up a fog bank the size they normally used when the weather wasn't feeling cooperative could be taxing for people not blessed with Kage level chakra reserves or a strong water affinity. But then pumping all that extra chakra into it to create his signature Blackout revision? _Even though she has a pretty strong water affinity, I don't know if Hinata has enough chakra to make it work._

Regardless, it could still be a powerful tactic and if they didn't try they'd never know. Naruto quickly scribbled something to that effect down in response before carefully refolding the origami shuriken and returning it by way of the ceiling.

Hinata's small smile as she read it was infectious. Smothering his own grin, Naruto turned back to the lesson only to discover Mizuki _still _droning on about pre-Second War economics.

_Screw this. I'm taking that nap, _Naruto decided. Unfortunately, he'd only made it as far as folding his arms when another origami shuriken bounced off the back of his head.

Thirty seconds of discreetly recovering it revealed what he'd know all along that it was going to say: '_And stay _awake_!'_

_. . . So mean, Hinata-chan._

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Naruto was feeling far less grumpy as classes switched for the last period of the day. When Iruka had taken back over the class, frantic elbows had been employed to rouse those who had succumbed to boredom during Mizuki's lesson. Those who hadn't been quick enough to wake up had found themselves staying over for 'remedial history lessons' after being awakened by thrown erasers.

Iruka's expression when he'd discovered Naruto still wide awake was surprised but also pleased and it had made the young blond grin. _Alright, so maybe Hinata wasn't being mean after all, _he admitted to himself as he slipped out of the classroom and began to navigate his way towards the Academy's practical skills class outside while thinking about practice with Hinata later.

Kurenai herself wasn't going to be able to attend training today, of course, she was currently on a mission outside the Village. And given how long he'd pla- er, _trained_ with Yakumo yesterday she would definitely have to spend today recovering. That thought caused the smile to slip from his face slightly. She'd made up a lot of ground over the last year, and her chakra control meant that she could make good use of her chakra reinforcement technique, but it made him feel sad to know that she'd never be able to train like he and Hinata could. _She can't even play chase the devil through the mist as long as we can, and it's not like that takes a huge amount of stamina. _Not for the first time the boy wished he could give her some of his physical stamina in exchange for some of her chakra control.

_Even after mastering tree walking and water walking my chakra control is only barely average. _And that was on a good day. Of course even that was an improvement over his previous level of 'Chakra control? What chakra control?' that Kurenai had joked about when they first started training more than a year ago. Looking back, that particular event had been hilarious, though he hadn't felt that way at the time . . .

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"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Naruto yelled as, for the third time, he blasted off the trunk of the tree he was trying to climb after no more than three steps up the trunk. Kurenai, off to the side, just shook her head as the young blond augered into the ground twenty yards away. Then her eyes shot open as the tree he'd been using gave an almighty _crack_ before breaking off six feet in the air and falling over. Things were not progressing anywhere near as well as she had expected.

In fact, she realized as she snapped her jaw shut, they were going opposite how she'd predicted, or at least near enough as made no difference. Most students that had trouble with their chakra control erred on the side of using too little chakra, rather than too much. Naruto, however, had not once slid off the tree as a result of using too small an amount of power.

He had, in fact, just killed the _tree _he was using so much! It made no sense! His failure at the academy had been because he couldn't do the _Bunshin _justsu for heaven's sake! It only required a fraction more power than the _Henge _and even civilians' children could manage it in more than eighty percent of cases. _So, _she asked herself, _why is it that the heir of the Uzumaki Clan can't? _Only one possible reason came to mind, but it was so preposterous she nearly discarded the notion outright.

_How the hell much chakra does he have that he's _critically overloading _the technique? _she asked herself incredulously as she watched the student climb to his feet. "Alright, let's hold here for a moment," she said, and Naruto dropped gratefully back to the ground. Apparently blasting off (and the inevitable impact) with such force was enough to dampen even his enthusiasm for training. "You're still using too much chakra, Naruto. You need to tone it down before you get seriously hurt," Kurenai stated firmly but not unkindly.

"But I'm doing it just like you said!" Naruto argued, "I'm only using a little more than I do for my _Henge_!"

Kurenai blinked in surprise before looking at the shattered tree and then back to her student. _I'm surprised he isn't critically overloading the _Henge _technique too. _"Try cutting the amount of chakra in half, then. It probably means we'll need to work on your Transformation technique later. You're almost certainly using too much chakra for it. I'm surprised it hasn't blown up in your face yet."

Naruto's jaw dropped, "But I'll be using even less chakra than I do for my Water Clones," he objected, voice confused.

Kurenai heard his statement and her mind froze up even as her mouth dropped open. _He . . . but, that . . ._ she also lost the ability to form complete sentences for several moments. Finally, after giving herself a mental shake she managed to verbalize an entire thought, "You mean to tell me that you're using enough Chakra to form _Water Clones_ on one of the academy techniques!?" she demanded incredulously. "It's a C-rank. The Academy Three are barely D-rank," she stopped to consider for a moment before continuing, "And the way you make a dozen or more clones at a time puts the chakra requirement somewhere near a B-rank technique!"

By this time, Hinata was staring at her crush with stars in her eyes, clearly impressed by how much chakra the boy had. Kurenai took a moment to mentally kick herself for never bothering to calculate that before. _If the brat can spam B-rank techniques like he can just how big are his chakra reserves? _That thought then triggered another, _I wonder, is this related to the Fox?_

That would actually explain a lot. "Alright, Naruto, it looks like you have the opposite problem I was expecting. I suppose I should be used to you surprising me by now. Try using the smallest amount of chakra you can, and we'll work our way up from there."

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He'd actually fallen off the tree a couple times before he'd hit the amount needed to stick to it the first time. Then he'd spent two weeks alternately falling off and blasting off before his control had improved enough to let him truly master the exercise.

As he exited the door of the academy, Naruto made sure to mentally switch gears. He didn't want to be distracted for Taijutsu practice. The last thing he wanted was to look like an idiot in one of the classes that he was actually doing fairly well in.

For the moment, though, there was nothing to worry about, Iruka was still splitting the girls off into pairs for practice and hadn't worked his way around to the boys yet. Naruto couldn't help but grin a little at the look that passed over Ino's face when she got matched up with Hinata. None of the kunoichi in the class looked forward to sparring against her. Over the last year, the experience had become an exercise in both pain and frustration.

On the other hand, he knew, almost all the girls in class had gotten better out of sheer self-preservation as a result. Even a lot of the boys had improved; cross-gender sparring wasn't frequent, but when it happened the only ones who could keep from ended up a mass of bruises from Juken strikes were The Bastard, Kiba, and Naruto himself. Once she'd gotten some self-confidence, Hinata had really turned into a handful.

While the instructor monitored the girls sparring, his assistants set the boys to practicing kata for the basic academy style and correcting those unfortunates who still hadn't managed to learn how to throw a punch or kick right. Naruto, himself, was only fair at the academy style and knew it. _On the other hand, why should I master something I never intend to use?_

The Uzumaki Clan had not, as a whole, specialized in Taijutsu. While there had, inevitably, been some masters of various styles, they had not dedicated the time to creating an unarmed style that they had to building the Honorable Sword of the Roaring Tides.

"Alright class!" the instructor yelled, and Naruto had to suppress a flinch. While he'd been lost in thought, the girls had finished sparring and now the boys were being paired off. He watched most of the civilian kids get paired up with each other before the teacher finally called his name, "Naruto Uzumaki versus Kiba Inuzuka, Sasuke-"

The instructor continued, but Naruto wasn't paying attention any more. Things had changed radically since his spar with the Inuzuka just after he started training in his family techniques. And while the Uzumaki hadn't developed a true Taijutsu style, they weren't idiots. In the chaos of battle, you might lose your sword, in an ambush you might find yourself engaged too swiftly and too close to draw a blade.

The Uzumaki Tiajutsu forms were designed to do one thing: permit a ninja to defend himself long enough to get to a weapon.

Kiba would doubtless win the spar, but Naruto wasn't trying to win. More than a year ago, Kurenai had given him a valuable piece of advice one day when he'd been particularly discouraged about losing a spar. '_Don't bother with the academy style. If, someday, you want to learn a formal style, that's fine. But it won't be the academy style. You'll be better off training how you'll fight. If you're serious about being a Kenjutsu specialist you'll do most of your fighting with a sword. The defensive forms your clan uses are designed to be used by a swordsman. You won't be winning any spars with such a defensive style, but your objective _isn't _to win' she'd explained, 'Set an objective for each spar. Get enough distance to draw your sword. Maneuver your opponent away from a certain area.' _She'd paused for a moment then before continuing, _'For that matter, you can use the rest of the spar as training too. There's an old ruse used to extract prisoners where a ninja will intentionally get captured in order to rescue his comrades or to scout out an opponent's prison. It isn't used very frequently, though, because to be successful the person getting captured has to lose convincingly enough that the enemy won't question their success. Learn to 'lose' convincingly enough and you could end up saving your friends' lives someday._

And so he had. At first, he hadn't had to act all that well, but as time passed and he got better at fending off his opponent, he'd gotten better at taking a fall without making it obvious as well.

_Today, _Naruto considered, trying to make up his mind on an objective, _Kiba's between me and my sword, so I have to get past him and then get enough time to pick it up._

His mission decided, Naruto waited his turn while watching the matches. Though today they really weren't very interesting. Some of the civilian kids were pretty decent at Taijutsu by this point, but they didn't hold a candle to any of the kids from one of the village's clans. Most days there was at least one good spar to watch, but all best students had ended up against ones who were much less capable. Even lazy Shikamaru won his match handily. Watching the mediocre civilian students fight wasn't going to teach him anything and theirs were the only close matches. Then, finally, it was his turn.

"Heh, looks like today's just an unlucky day for the low-ranked students, right Akamaru?" Kiba bragged as he stepped into the ring.

A year earlier, the comment would have either enraged Naruto, or flown entirely over his head. Instead, he smirked internally; in the last six months, Kiba hadn't managed to prevent him even once from meeting whatever objective he set for himself. Still, there was his reputation to consider. . .

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Kiba. It's not your fault you're up against the future Hokage!" most of his classmates scoffed or laughed at that thought, but their disdain flowed off the blonde like water off a duck's back.

"And I'm Princess Gale," Kiba immediately retorted before Iruka began the match.

Kiba, as usual, jumped immediately to the offensive. Naruto avoided his opening assault, a straight punch aimed at his nose, with a sweeping deflection at the Inuzuka's wrist. Against one of the civilian students it would likely have been enough for him to slip past and, theoretically, give him enough time to arm himself, thus 'winning' the spar.

Kiba, despite being a bit of a braggart, wasn't only hot air. He let himself spin with the imparted momentum and lashed out with one foot in an attempt to trip his opponent. Naruto, however, wasn't caught unaware, he threw himself into a roll over the leg and under Kiba's follow up back fist and popped back to his feet now side on to the area he'd set as his goal for the match.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to congratulate himself any further for his success. Kiba, looking annoyed that the 'dead last' had managed to once again avoid his opening attack came back in with a vengeance. A quick left-right-left series of blows tried to corral the blonde and force him into the path of a kick, but Naruto ducked quickly to the side and pushed the kick higher, trying to throw the Inuzuka off balance.

The technique had worked in the past, but it was obvious that Kiba had been practicing as he threw himself backwards into a flip and managed to not only land on his feet, but also kick off the ground, reverse his momentum, and close the distance in a flash.

The new response to his trick flustered Naruto for a moment. Surprised, he had to block the first couple blows before he managed to return to avoiding them. Naruto looked for another opening in the Inuzuka's heavy offensive, but wasn't having much luck. _Dog Breath has definitely been practicing. Still . . ._ the blonde considered as he swayed out of the path of another punch, _his biggest weakness is his temper. If I can keep avoiding him until he gets frustrated . . ._

Three strikes later Naruto had his chance. He'd barely noticed consciously that the other boy had overextended himself trying to land a punch by the time his own body had reacted. His left hand darted out to grab Kiba's right arm by the wrist even as he ducked under the extended arm and turned twisting and pushing the Inuzuka even further off balance.

Gravity took over and Kiba instinctively went into a roll to keep from ending up face first in the dirt. Unfortunately, he'd pushed Naruto so close to the edge of the sparring circle that his tumble ended with him rolling outside of the chalked area before he could stop himself.

The class, which had been watching and in some cases even cheering Kiba on fell silent in something very like shock. Even Iruka seemed surprised with the result of the spar.

Naruto, on the other hand, could have been knocked over with a feather and was mentally kicking himself. _Stupid, stupid, stupid. Pay more attention to what you're doing! _He'd immediately moved toward his goal after tripping up Kiba, not even considering the consequences of the technique he'd used. _Darn it, he's gotten a lot better since the last time we sparred. _Instinctively, Naruto had treated his fellow student like an enemy ninja(or Kurenai) instead of a sparring opponent. His body had reacted without any conscious input from his brain and- _and if I don't stop staring stupidly and do something quickly I'm goingtoblowmycover!_

"Ha! How does it feel Princess? Hokage Monument here I come! You'd better get ready to put my face on that mountain any day now!" he gloated, acting like an idiot even as the air seemed to return to the gathered students and teaching staff.

"Idiot," Iruka clunked him over the head though not unaffectionately, "If you want to be Hokage you'll need to do more than win a single spar," the chunin said before ruffling his hair a bit. "Still, good job. That wasn't bad for a complete improvisation. You've been getting better this year at defending yourself. If you can work more throws and ways to counter attack into that style you're developing it will definitely improve your class ranking."

It was all Naruto could do not to immediately admit to Iruka what he had been up to after he heard the man's honest praise. Even having worked with Hinata, Kurenai, and later Yakumo for months on end, at heart Naruto was still the child who had only ever heard affection from Old Man Hokage and the Ichiraku family. After a few moments, he blinked his tears away and turned a full-faced grin on his favorite teacher. "Just you wait, Iruka-sensei, I'll be the best Hokage ever!"

Iruka quickly hid a grin, "Now that I think about it, you were awake at the end of last class too. Are you sure you're not an infiltrator?" The chunin joked as one of the last pairs of students matched up.

Even so, Naruto couldn't help but feel proud that Iruka approved of him. Right up until he remembered that he wasn't really supposed to be showing what he could do. He glanced over to see Hinata shooting him a look of disapproval and tried not to whimper.

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Mizuki returned to the classroom after watching the Demon-Brat's spar against Kiba Inuzuka and tore into a trio of students who had fallen asleep in his absence before returning to his lecture. He was fortunate that he had gone over the speech enough that he could give it in his sleep, because his focus was definitely not on the information he was supposed to be imparting to his students.

_That worthless little brat! _the thought echoed in his head repeatedly, _Damn worthless Demon! _complemented it. It was all the instructor could do to stomp on his fury enough to keep from doing something that would give him away. _And damn Iruka for a blind fool anyway! _The man's own parents had been butchered by the Demon Fox. How could he even stand to be in the same room with it? Much less teach it and make it _more _dangerous.

_And after that performance out there today, he'll no doubt increase the little bastard's scores in Taijutsu. _Which just stuck in his craw sideways. He'd been doing the best he could to get the brat to flunk out of the academy, but it seemed like the Demon still had the Hokage in its thrall.

Finally as class was letting out for the day, he came to a decision.

_It's time to take drastic measures, _He knew where the grade books were and he'd long ago learned to forge Iruka's writing. He couldn't spike the Demon too blatantly or it would be noticed, but altering a bit here or a piece there would be overlooked unless someone went over everything with a fine-toothed comb.

Later that night, he strolled quietly onto the grounds of the Academy. After all, he was a teacher; he had every right to be there. None of the security bothered to stop him. He was, after all, authorized.

It was easy to get into the 'sealed' records room. The defenses were meant to deal with students, not instructors. Finding the correct book was equally simple. The hardest part was resisting the desire to throw up when he read Iruka's latest entries.

'_Shows significant improvement in offensive and defensive Taijutsu,' _he read incredulously, _'Student Uzumaki displays increased attention to detail and persistence in the face of adversity,' _If he hadn't half expected something of the sort he would have been furious. As it was, he was only angry. _Damn that fox-bastard anyway. How the hell can the Demon keep turning just the right person over to his side!_

Mizuki took a calming breath and focused rereading the latest entries carefully. He'd have to keep the same sort of tone Iruka had used, so as not to give away his alterations and getting that just right could be tricky. He weighed the changes he wanted to make with what Iruka had given him to work with and then got started.

Walking out of the room a half hour later, Mizuki wore a much different expression. He'd tinkered as much as he could and managed to twist the report around like a coiling snake. Instead or reading like honest praise, it now read more like a polite condemnation. So pleased with himself was he that he failed to note the masked shinobi slip into the records room before the door closed.

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Normally Naruto would have been quite happy walking into the training grounds of the informal 'Team Kurenai.' _Today, on the other hand. _Naruto walked into the clearing and immediately set eyes on Hinata. _Not the disappointed face, _he thought with a wince, _I _hate _the disappointed face. _That too had been a recent development. Coming to the realization that not all attention was good attention had shocked him a bit, but . . .

Naruto _hated _to disappoint any of his teammates. The unlikely, strictly unofficial group was the nearest thing to a family he'd ever had. The few times he'd done something stupid enough to make Kurenai truly angry at him had hurt. The only thing worse was what was in front of him at that very moment.

"You should be more careful, Naruto," Hinata scolded, looking sadly at him and trying not to poke her fingers together in embarrassment at having to be the one to do it. "You know the plan. Even with Hokage-sama getting rid of the bad teachers at the academy last year, there are still too many people that want you to fail."

And he did know the plan. After all, the civilians on the council wouldn't exert themselves to make his life even more miserable than it had been if he looked like he was going to flunk out of the academy all on his own. "I know, Hinata, but it's been months since I sparred with Dog-Breath, and he's definitely been practicing. He surprised me with how much better he's gotten and I just reacted without thinking," he tried to explain while all but groveling at her feet. "I'll be ready for it next time, I promise."

"It's okay, Naruto," Hinata said as the disappointment left her face, her limited ability to scold anyone having run its course, "but now you'll have to at least stay at the level you showed today in practice or it'll look suspicious," she warned the blonde.

"I know," Naruto grumbled, "That basically means I'll have to start beating the civilian kids almost all the time."

"Which is likely to make the ones whose parents have friends on the council angry enough to try and make things harder for you," the Hyuga heiress pointed out in as close to a berating manner as she could manage.

Naruto felt his shoulders slump. At the very best vandalism around his apartment building was likely to take an upswing. Rather than dwell on that, however, he changed the subject to what the original purpose of the meeting had been. "So, you wanted to learn my Blackout technique?"

Hinata definitely noticed the less-than-graceful change of subject, but seemed willing to let their previous conversation die a natural death. "Yes, please," she said with focused determination; she seemed certain that Naruto had discerned why she had asked.

"The first question I have is if you even have enough chakra to make a big enough cloud of mist to be useful. The first thing you need to think about is how big an area you need to cover," Naruto spoke thoughtfully, trying to weigh how Hinata's comparatively stronger water affinity and better chakra control would affect the technique.

A small frown slipped onto Hinata's features, but by her quick answer the question was one she had already been considering. "The most likely place would be the small private dojo in the main house," she explained as she paced off the approximate length and width of the area.

It was larger than most rooms. For that matter, it was about the size of Naruto's entire apartment, but then the Hyuga were a big clan and they'd been important and thus sought after for a long time. They had quite a bit of money to throw at things like big houses. "Alright, you already know the basic Hidden Mist technique, so this should be pretty simple. All you have to do is focus as much chakra into the technique as you can while limiting the formation of mist to only the area you're focused on. The first time try holding a Ram seal at the end to help with your concentration," he instructed before cautioning her, "but if you lose your focus all you'll get is a really big fog bank."

Hinata nodded and worked through the hand signs for the technique with more care and deliberation than usual, obviously centering herself totally on what she was trying to do. Finally she reached the end formed the Ram seal Naruto had recommended. Immediately a billowing cloud of mist began to form around the Hyuga heiress and Naruto quickly lost sight of her. Though Naruto wasn't the best at sensing chakra, even he could feel that the mist was laden with it. It reached out to the borders Hinata had marked out before stopping almost exactly where she had marked, and Naruto had already opened his mouth to shout encouragement to her about her success before he noticed the problem.

The fog might have stopped expanding _out_, but it hadn't stopped expanding _up_. Rather than the seven or eight feet that she'd probably need for the spar, the mist was trying to climb high enough to meet the few wisps of clouds present in the afternoon sky. Before he could verbalize a warning about what was happening, the ground-level cloud, supersaturated with chakra, and the upper levels, where the chakra was thinning out rapidly, destabilized. Moments later, a massive swath of the training area was covered in mist as the technique slipped from Hinata's control and the girl herself slipped to the ground with an audible thump.

The sound, at least, gave Naruto something to home in on and he quickly made his way to his friend's side. Even merely a foot from her, it was hard to make out details in the pea soup-thick fog, but he doubted that the moisture on her forehead was just condensation.

"I messed up, didn't I?" she asked tiredly. If he had to guess, he suspected she'd used most of the chakra she had left after a day of classes in her attempt.

"Better than my first try," he shot back with an irrepressible grin. "You hit the markers on the ground almost exactly; I just forgot to remind you to put a lid on the box," he continued as his smile turned a bit repentant and a hand climbed to scratch at the back of his head.

"I forgot about it too," Hinata admitted with a wry smile of her own peeking through her exhaustion.

"Aw, you'll get it next time, believe it!" Naruto said loudly before continuing in a quieter voice, "Though I think 'next time' had better be tomorrow. Maybe the day after," he stopped for a moment to inspect Hinata as best he could, given the conditions. "You tried to keep it from collapsing at the end by pushing more chakra into it didn't you?" When she nodded he continued, "Definitely day after, then. You're right on the edge of chakra exhaustion, so we'd better give you a day to recover."

Hinata managed to assemble a rebellious look despite her fatigue. "I only have so many days before the Elders go ahead with their plan, Naruto," she reminded him.

"Then spend tomorrow after classes planning or something," the blonde ordered the rapidly wilting girl in front of him, "Jus-Hey! Don't go to sleep on me!" His concern turning to exasperation mid-word as his teammate's eyes drifted shut.

"Great, now I have to carry her home," he grumbled, "It's a good thing you're so light, Hinata-chan."

Even unconscious the girl's face blushed bright red.

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Shimura Danzo read the latest report on Naruto Uzumaki and scoffed. _Pitiful, simply pitiful._

The month before when one of his Root ANBU had reported that the Container was being trained by one of the newly promoted Jounin he'd felt a moment's respect for his old rival as well as a noticeable amount of distress given the plans any such training could disrupt. He'd detailed another of his 'deactivated' division to observe the training and report only for his anxiety to redouble when his operative had to cancel the mission due to the presence of Hiashi Hyuga's oldest daughter. Although it was infuriating, he had to commend his agent; standing orders called for all Root members to avoid the Hyuga due to the risk of discovery the clan's Byakugan created.

And so he'd had to wait for a month, contemplating scenarios and forming contingencies until one of his undercover members was posted to a shift at the Academy. That event had lead inexorably to his current disgust. _Almost no improvement, _he noted, looking at the specifics of the report. _A slight increase in his ability with defensive Taijutsu and an equally small increase in his classroom scores. _As if a weapon had any need to know history or the philosophical garbage crammed down the students' throats.

On the one hand, it was good news. A minimally capable Jinchuriki was what many of his plans were predicated on. Sarutobi's foolishness in refusing to treat the Container like what it _was_ may have been the fool's biggest mistake to date. To leave such a potential advantage in such a pathetic state was unforgivable.

_It seems as though it will have to be option two. _That was, indeed, a shame, but unless the Jounin Sarutobi had enlisted and the Hyuga's heir, _Who, _he noted to himself, _is also the first ranked student in her class, _were _both_ incompetent . . .

Danzo shook his head and began to redraw all the plans he'd made over the last month in light of the new information. He'd hoped to be able to leave relatively early tonight, his old bones ached more the later in the evening it got. Still, everyone made their sacrifices for the good of the village. _After all, the work of a great tree's Roots is never done._

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Japanese Idiom!

'Don't complain about a gift' is roughly equivalent to 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'

So, we get to see the beginnings of the tangled web the members of the upcoming Thirty Xanatos Pileup are weaving and how truth is getting distorted by the participants each acting on their own agendas. Sorry again that this has taken so long, but every time I thought I had this all planned out I'd run into a plot hole or Speaker4thesilent would point out another flaw in my logic. Also, I must admit that I hadn't touched this since early November. No excuse, I just didn't feel like writing for a while.

This chapter is a bit longer than the previous ones have been. Hope that makes up at least a bit for the lateness and I'll try to have another one out soonish. Thanks for reading and please review! It is, after all, the coin of the realm.


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